The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in March that would review a lower court ruling that would allow cities to deny married gay and lesbian men and women the same benefits that straight couples receive. The court-case review was originally denied back in September, since the US Supreme Court has already ruled on marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges, but that didn’t stop Republicans from pressuring the court to take the case. The original complaint was filed by Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks in Houston who challenged a policy that gave marriage benefits to married city employees. Their logic is that the Supreme Court case does not “bind state courts to resolve all other claims in favor of the right to same-sex marriage.” And, in fact, the case only requires Texas to recognize same-sex unions, but they don’t have to extend benefits or “‘…subsidiz[e] same-sex marriages.'”

Republicans chimed in with a statement too. “It it not the duty of the state courts to divine broad principles from Supreme Court opinions and to extrapolate them to new contexts,” the Republicans write in the brief. “Rather, state courts must be meticulous in examining each new claimed right and determining whether and to what extent it must be expanded in new ways.” [DO]

Republicans need to stop wasting money on fighting to be on the wrong side of history.