Jack Wagoner, attorney who challenged Arkansas’ same-sex marriage ban, dies

Attorney Jack Wagoner, who helped successfully challenge Arkansas’ gay marriage ban, has died

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Attorney Jack Wagoner, who helped successfully challenge Arkansas’ same-sex marriage ban in state and federal courts, has died. He was 62.

Wagoner died Tuesday in Little Rock, said Bruce Tennant, an attorney who worked with him at his law firm. Tennant said the cause of death was not yet known.

Wagoner represented same-sex couples challenging a constitutional amendment that Arkansas voters inserted into the state Constitution in 2004 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. A state judge ruled the amendment unconstitutional in 2014, leading to more than 500 same-sex couples getting married before the Arkansas Supreme Court put the ruling on hold.

The state Supreme Court did not rule on whether the ban was constitutional before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. A federal judge also overturned the ban in Arkansas, but put her ruling on hold.

At the time of the rulings, Wagoner predicted that gay marriage would eventually be legal nationwide.

“It’s pretty clear where history is going on this issue,” Wagoner said.

Cheryl Maples, an attorney who also represented the couples, died in 2019.

Tennant said the gay marriage case was an example of the types he focused on. Wagoner had also worked on nursing home neglect and abuse cases.

“He always wanted to fight for the little guy,” Tennant said.

Wagoner was also one of several attorneys representing a divorced Arkansas man who was prohibited from visiting his child at night in the presence of his long-term domestic partner. The state Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2013.

Wagoner is survived by his wife and two daughters.