Lambda Legal Applauds Governor García Padilla’s Statement that Marriages will Continue in Puerto Rico

Today, Governor Alejandro García Padilla announced that the decision issued yesterday by the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, holding that the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down discriminatory marriage bans nationwide did not apply to Puerto Rico because it is not a state, would not affect the ability of LGBT people in Puerto Rico to marry. Lambda Legal applauds the Governor’s announcement.

Omar González-Pagan, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal, said:

The marriages of same-sex couples in Puerto Rico are not in limbo and we appreciate that Governor García Padilla has reassured LGBT people and made clear to all others in the Island that marriage is here to stay. The decision issued yesterday by District Court Judge Pérez Giménez is fundamentally flawed and we plan to file an appeal to ensure that this discriminatory ban does not stand. The law is on our side. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit was clear when it stated that Puerto Rico’s marriage ban was unconstitutional and the U.S. Supreme Court has indisputably held that the constitutional guarantees of liberty and equality apply with equal force to the Commonwealth.

In his statement, Governor Alejandro García Padilla expressed that the fundamental right to marriage was validated and ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and that he would respect those higher court rulings which are contrary to the decision of Judge Pérez Giménez. 

In July, after the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated the district court’s original ruling in Conde-Vidal, et al v. Rius-Armendariz, et al that had upheld Puerto Rico’s discriminatory ban, ordering further consideration by the district court in light of Obergefell, and agreeing that the ban is unconstitutional.

Subsequently, Puerto Rico began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and Lambda Legal and the defendants filed a Joint Motion for Entry of Judgment seeking a judgment that all provisions of Puerto Rico law banning licensing and recognition of marriage for LGBT people is unconstitutional and no longer enforceable. The district court’s ruling yesterday denied that motion after months of waiting.

The case was originally brought by a same-sex couple seeking recognition of their marriage, which they entered into in Massachusetts. In June 2014, Lambda Legal joined the lawsuit in representation of four additional plaintiff couples and an organizational plaintiff, Puerto Rico Para Tod@s.

Read the press release.