Lawyers for an Oklahoma clerk who refused to grant a marriage license to a same-sex couple say marriage exists for its procreative potential and that the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.
The argument came in a brief filed Tuesday by lawyers for Tulsa County Court Clerk Sally Howe Smith. Oral arguments are scheduled for later this month in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Howe Smith refused to issue a marriage license to Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin. The couple then sued over Oklahoma's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban. Lawyers for Bishop and Baldwin earlier argued that the ban demeans same-sex couples and their children.
U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled in January against Smith, who appealed the case. A hearing is set for April 17.
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