same-sex marriages

Two Lawsuits Challenge State Department’s Refusal to Recognize Same-Sex Marriages

 

Immigration Equality and cooperating attorneys from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP have filed two lawsuits against the U.S. State Department, challenging the Department’s refusal to recognize the birthright citizenship of two youngsters who are children of dual-nation married same-sex couples. The complicated cases turn on interpretation of a federal statute, Section 301(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (referred to as the INA), which establishes the citizenship status of persons born abroad to married U.S. … <Read More>

Federal Court Ruling on “Religious Exemptions” from Anti-Discrimination Laws on Same-Sex Weddings May Preview Supreme Court Decision

 

Chief Judge John R. Tunheim of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota ruled in Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey, 2017 WL 4179899, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 153014 (D. Minn., Sept. 20, 2017), that for-profit businesses do not enjoy a constitutional right to refuse to provide their services for same-sex weddings on the same basis that they provide services for different-sex weddings.  Turning back a case brought by the anti-gay religious litigation organization, Alliance Defending … <Read More>

N.Y. Appellate Division Finds Wedding Venue Unlawfully Excluded Same-Sex Couple

A unanimous five-judge bench of the New York Appellate Division, 3rd Department, an intermediate appellate court that hears appeals from state agency rulings in Albany, upheld a decision by the State Division of Human Rights (SDHR) that Liberty Ridge Farm LLC, an upstate business corporation that rents facilities for wedding ceremonies and other life-cycle events, violated the state’s Human Rights Law (HLR) in 2012 when the business turned away a lesbian couple looking for … <Read More>

Immigration Review Panel Announces Same-Sex Marriage Recognition Rule

Shortly after the Supreme Court held Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional on June 26 in U.S. v. Windsor, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the immigration service under her department would recognize same-sex marriages that were valid where they were performed, using the “place of celebration rule.”  But her announcement, which varied from standard practice of considering whether a marriage was recognized where the couple was residing, … <Read More>

Implementing the Windsor Decision

Under U.S. v. Windsor, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and we are left with no broadly applicable federal statutory definition of marriage.  What we have are 13 states and the District of Columbia, which now grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and several other countries (including neighboring Canada) in which such licenses are also available.  At this point, there are thousands of same-sex couples living in the United States who … <Read More>