A Washington State employer that refused for almost a year to allow employees to enroll their same-sex spouses in the employer’s health plan lost its motion to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit pending before U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez on September 22. The employer, BNSF Railway Company, insisted that it could not provide the benefits because the employee benefits plan defined marriage as “between one man and one woman.” The employer did not extend the … <Read More>
Legal Issues
Louisiana Trial Court Rules for Marriage Equality, Ordering Recognition and Granting Adoption of Child
In a sweeping victory for Angela Costanza and Chasity Brewer, Louisiana 15th Judicial District Court Judge Edward B. Rubin ruled on September 22 that Louisiana must recognize their California marriage and allow Chasity to adopt their son, N.B., who was conceived through donor insemination with Angela the birth mother. Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell, one of the named defendants in the case, announced that the court’s order would be appealed directly to the Louisiana … <Read More>
The Power of Full Faith & Credit and a Jury
Putting together the power of the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause and a verdict by a jury who got to see the parties testify, a Texas gay co-parent has preserved his status as “sole managing conservator” of the child he and his former partner/spouse conceived with the help of a gestational surrogate. Herein lies a somewhat complicated tale providing new evidence of the extraordinary developments in LGBT family law over the past few … <Read More>
Arizona Federal Court Orders State to Recognize One Same-Sex Marriage on a Death Certificate
In a ruling that eerily echoed one issued little over a year earlier, a U.S. District Court judge has ordered the state of Arizona to issue a death certificate for a gay man identifying him as a married to his same-sex spouse. The September 12 ruling in Majors v. Jeanes, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127942, by Judge John W. Sedwick provided a close parallel to a ruling on July 22, 2012, by U.S. District Judge … <Read More>
3rd Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to New Jersey’s Ban on “Conversion Therapy” for Gay Minors
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals decisively rejected a constitutional challenge to a New Jersey law that prohibits licensed therapists from performing “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE) — sometimes called “conversion therapy” — on persons under 18 years of age. The court rejected arguments that the law violates the freedom of speech and free exercise of religion of the therapist, in a September 11 opinion by Circuit Judge … <Read More>
Magistrate Denies HIV-Positive Gay Discrimination Plaintiff’s Request to Sue Anonymously
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Wilkinson, Jr., has denied a request by a gay HIV-positive man to have his identity shielded from public exposure in the discrimination lawsuit he has filed against his former employer in the federal district court in New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to Wilkinson’s September 5 ruling on a motion filed by the plaintiff simultaneously with his discrimination complaint, the plaintiff is claiming violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act … <Read More>
9th Circuit Panel Dubious About Idaho and Nevada Justifications for Marriage Ban
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that heard oral arguments on September 8 in marriage equality cases from Idaho, Nevada and Hawaii appeared to be very dubious about the justifications presented by Idaho and Nevada for their bans on same-sex marriage. The Hawaii case focuses on a different issue: whether the district court’s ruling against marriage equality is “moot” because the Hawaii legislature passed a marriage equality law last year, and thus … <Read More>
Unanimous 7th Circuit Panel Strikes Down Wisconsin and Indiana Same-Sex Marriage Bans
Less than two weeks after roughing up attorneys for the states of Wisconsin and Indiana in a heated oral argument, a three-judge panel of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit issued a unanimous decision in Baskin v. Bogan, 2014 WL 4359059 (September 4, 2014), striking down the bans on same-sex marriage in those states. Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Richard Posner, one of Ronald Reagan’s earliest judicial appointees in 1981, … <Read More>
Federal Judge Rules Against Marriage Equality in Louisiana
U.S. District Judge Martin L. C. Feldman, appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, has rejected a constitutional challenge to Louisiana’s state constitutional and statutory ban on same-sex marriage. Parting company from every federal district judge who has decided a marriage equality claim since the Supreme Court’s June 2013 decision striking down a federal ban on the recognition of same-sex marriages, U.S. v. Windsor, Feldman insisted that existing precedents preserve Louisiana’s … <Read More>
Florida Appeals Court Calls for Florida Supreme Court to Decide Marriage Equality Question
In a highly unusual move, most of the judges on the Florida Second District Court of Appeal have agreed to certify to the state’s Supreme Court the question whether a Florida trial court has jurisdiction over a divorce proceeding of a same-sex couple who were married in another state. A panel of the court had rejected a request by the parties to refer the case to the Supreme Court on June 26, but the parties … <Read More>