Local faces at nation’s capital for historic Supreme Court moment (AUDIO INSIDE)

Gerald Triche
April 28, 2015
Babin seeking Terrebonne presidency
April 29, 2015
Gerald Triche
April 28, 2015
Babin seeking Terrebonne presidency
April 29, 2015

As the nation turned its ears toward arguments on same-sex marriage from within the U.S. Supreme Court’s walls a Louisiana couple with Terrebonne Parish roots were among the throng gathered outside, affirming the historic nature of the cases being heard, as well as their own role in the developing legal history.

“I am very confident,” Derek Penton-Robicheaux said of the potential the Supreme Court will declare that states like Louisiana, which define marriage as strictly being between a man and a woman, violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal rights to all people in all states. “I don’t think they can come this far and have them say we didn’t get it right.”

The case brought by Derek and his husband, Jon Penton-Robicheaux, who grew up in Terrebonne Parish, languishes in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals pending the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday’s arguments on Obergefell v. Hodges, an Ohio case arising from that state’s refusal to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in Maryland. A federal judge declared that refusal unconstitutional but the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed.


(To hear arguments from the courtroom, click HERE and HERE).

Same-sex cases from other Sixth Circuit Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky were consolidated with Obergerfell when the Supreme Court chose to consider two questions that were argued Tuesday: Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and “does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.”

The latter question arises specifically from the Ohio litigation.


Two states – Maine and Maryland – have recognized same-sex marriage after popular vote. The District of Columbia did the same.

Eight states – Hawaii, Delaware, Vermont, Minnesota, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New York – declared same-sex marriages legal by acts of their legislatures.

The remaining states that now allow and recognize same-sex marriage got there only due to court decisions, a route whose propriety some justices questioned.


Chief Justice John Roberts reflected the societal weight of the overall question when he told gay marriage proponents “you are not seeking to join the institution. You are seeking to change the institution.”

Questions fielded by the justices during the separate hearings on both questions appeared consistent with the right-or-left ideologies each is generally identified with.

A decision is expected in late June.


The Penton-Robicheauxs were not in the courtroom for the actual hearings, foregoing the line of people on both sides of the issue queued up since Friday outside the Supreme Court building, acknowledging there was no chance they would end up within the courthouse.

They maintain that their presence at a Tuesday morning rally was on behalf of all same-sex couples seeking to marry in Louisiana, or already married and wishing Louisiana recognition.

“We are just here representing Louisiana and supporting those cases from the Sixth Circuit being heard today,” Derek said Tuesday. “We couldn’t be happier representing out community.”


In addition to public events, like the pre-hearing rally and a gathering of married gay couples Monday night, the Penton-Robicheauxs took the occasion of their Washington trip for a personal moment, with Derek re-proposing on the Supreme Court steps; The initial proposal led to their Sept. 23, 2012 marriage in Iowa.

Local couples whose marriages – or hopes for marriage – will be directly affected when the Supreme Court issues its decision voiced opinions similar to those expressed by Kevin Cathcart, executive director of New York-based Lambda Legal, one of the advocacy organizations closely associated with the litigation.

“Today was an awe-inspiring and singular moment in the march towards justice for same-sex couples and their families as powerful arguments for fairness, equality and love echoed in the chamber of our nation’s highest court,” Cathcart said.


A Raceland couple, Courtney and Nadine Blanchard, who were also married in Iowa and have a case before the Fifth Circuit, chose not to travel to Washington but closely monitored the arguments.

Also paying close attention to the high court’s proceedings are local opponents to legalization of same-sex marriages.

For the Rev. Vincent Fuselier, pastor of St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in Houma, the potential of legal same-sex marriages as the law of the land is disturbing.


“They don’t know God,” he said of judges who have already ruled in favor. “And they don’t know his ruling. Or they are the same way (as gay marriage supporters) hidden behind their robes. They are afraid that if they don’t do that they will lose their position. Well God did not call no scared soldiers. If you are representing God how could you allow that?”

During the Supreme Court arguments the question of religious beliefs was given little attention, although a question from the bench did arise as to whether the court should mandate such radical change when it is contrary to the creeds of many.

Fuselier is among clergymen who note that the bedrock of their faith, the Judeo-Christian Bible, contains numerous references to marriages and that none involves people of the same gender


“The Bible says when a man leaves his mother and father and cleaves to his wife,” Fueslier said. “Which is a woman. God created man and man alone at that time and then he saw that man was by himself he made a woman, so that he would have a helpmate- it does not say man and man and woman and woman.”

Gay MarriageCOURTESY PHOTO