Vermont Supreme Court Finds Civil Union Dissolution Statute Still Relevant After Obergefell

 

Responding to the difficulties encountered by same-sex couples who entered into Vermont civil unions (and, beginning in 2009, same-sex marriages) and then lived in other states where their legal unions were denied recognition for purposes of dissolution or divorce, Vermont amended its divorce and annulment law in 2012 to provide that couples legally united in Vermont and living elsewhere who sought to dissolve their unions but had no vehicle to do that in the courts … <Read More>


Kentucky Court Rules Against Marital Evidentiary Privilege for Vermont Civil Union Partners

A Kentucky judge denied a motion by a lesbian murder defendant to invoke the spousal privilege to present her Vermont civil union partner from testifying at the trial.  Ruling on September 23, Jefferson Circuit Judge Susan Schultz Gibson held that because a Vermont civil union is not a marriage, Kentucky’s marital testimonial privilege does not apply.

Bobbie Jo Clary and Geneva Case were united in a civil union in Vermont in 2004, and later came … <Read More>