Judge in R.I. rejects same-sex divorce

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 12 (UPI) -- A Superior Court judge in Rhode Island has ruled that she does not have the power to grant a divorce to two women who married in Massachusetts.

While Judge Patricia Hurst said she clearly has no jurisdiction over divorce, she suggested the state's Family Court Act, adopted in 1961, might be unconstitutional, the Providence Journal reported. Hurst said the law, by excluding same-sex couples, might be denying them equal protection.

Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers, both Providence residents, married in Fall River, Mass., in 2004 after the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. The two women attempted to get a divorce in Rhode Island, but the Supreme Court ruled against them in 2007.

Chambers tried to bypass the Family Court by filing for a divorce in Superior Court. Ormiston has rented a room in Cambridge, Mass., and is seeking a divorce there.