Another Marriage Equality Ruling from Florida – Albeit a Narrow One

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Diana Lewis ruled on August 5 that the Florida ban on recognizing same-sex marriages was unconstitutional as applied to the case pending before her, in which a Pennsylvania man is seeking to be appointed the Personal Representative in Florida for his deceased husband’s estate.  Lewis found that there was no rational basis to deny the appointment.

Frank Bangor and Jason Simpson were married in Delaware in 2013.  Bangor passed away … <Read More>


Knocking on the Supreme Court’s Door for Marriage Equality

Yesterday, August 5, the governor and attorney general of Utah filed their petition for certiorari with the US Supreme Court, seeking review of the 10th Circuit’s decision that Utah’s same-sex marriage ban violates the 14th Amendment.   Counsel for the defendant clerk in the Oklahoma marriage case has also announced that they will be filing a cert petition.

From the 4th Circuit, which ruled recently that Virginia’s marriage ban is unconstitutional, comes word that at least … <Read More>


Utah Files Petition for Supreme Court Review of Marriage Equality Ruling

Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Attorney General Sean Reyes filed their petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court on August 5, seeking review of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Kitchen v. Herbert.  At the Supreme Court, the case would be called Herbert v. Kitchen.  The 10th Circuit ruled on June 25 that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment by depriving same-sex couples of the fundamental right to … <Read More>


A Third Florida Trial Court Rules in Favor of Marriage Equality in a Civil Union Recognition Case

Broward County Circuit Judge Dale Cohen has ruled that Florida must recognize a Vermont civil union for purposes of dissolving it so that one of the partners, a long-time Florida resident, can marry her girlfriend out of state.  The August 4 ruling in Brassner v. Lade, Case No. 13-012058(37), is the 30th consecutive ruling for marriage equality since a federal judge in Utah ruled last December that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th … <Read More>


N.J. Federal Judge Rejects Parents’ Challenge to “Gay Conversion Therapy” Ban

U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson, who ruled last November 8 that New Jersey’s legislative ban on licensed therapists using “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE) on minors did not violate the 1st Amendment rights of the therapists, has issued a further ruling on July 30, 2014, holding in a parallel case that the statute did not violate the 1st and 14th Amendment rights of a minor seeking to gain such therapy or the minor’s parents.  … <Read More>


Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Domestic Partnership Law

The seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a state constitutional challenge to the Wisconsin Domestic Partnership Act.  The July 31 ruling in Appling v. Walker, 2014 WI 96, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 533, in an opinion by Justice N. Patrick Crooks, Jr., held that the state’s marriage amendment, passed in 2006, did not prevent the legislature from creating a legal status for same-sex couples that would carry many, but not all, of the rights of marriage.  … <Read More>


4th Circuit Votes to Strike Down Virginia’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriages

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit voted 2-1 to declare Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.  The opinion for the court issued on July 28 in Bostic v. Schaefer, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14298, 2014 WL 3702493, did not go into immediate effect.  The court’s rules give the defendants up to two weeks to file a motion for rehearing or en banc review, or to file a notice … <Read More>


Alaska Supreme Court Rules Surviving Same-Sex Partner May Qualify for Death Benefit

The Alaska Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on July 25 holding that the surviving same-sex partner of an employee killed while at work may qualify to receive a death benefit under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Law.  The ruling in Harris v. Millennium Hotel, 2014 Alas. LEXIS 149, was not particularly surprising in light of this court’s recent track record in applying equal protection policies to protect same-sex couples despite the state’s anti-gay Marriage Amendment.  … <Read More>


A Second Florida Trial Judge Rules for Marriage Equality

Just days after Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis M. Garcia ruled that Florida’s constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage violate the 14th Amendment, a second Florida trial judge, Sarah Zabel of Miami-Dade County, reached the same conclusion in Pareto v. Ruvin and State of Florida, No. 14-1661 CA 24, announced on July 25.  As in the earlier case, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately responded by filing a notice of appeal, but Judge Zabel … <Read More>


Nassau County (N.Y.) Family Court Rejects Lesbian Co-Parent Custody Petition

Nassau County (NY) Family Court Judge Edmund M. Dane rejected a lesbian co-parent’s joint custody petition on June 30, finding that despite the 2011 passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Law, the state’s child custody laws fail to acknowledge parental claims of a co-parent who was not married to the child’s birth mother when the child was born.  Jann P. v. Jamie P., NYLJ 1202664272007 (published July 23, 2014).

According to Judge Dane’s opinion, the … <Read More>