One of the important legal benefits of marriage — something that can't really be quantified in monetary terms — is the ability to have somebody in whom to confide and share life's difficulties and secrets, sure that the law will place a "cone of silence" over the couple and decline to compel one to testify about the content of private conversations with the other.  Now a Delaware court has recognized spousal privilege for a same-sex couple … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means, of the U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled on March 12, 2012, that Jacqueline Gill can pursue her discrimination claim against officials at Tarrant County College District who have denied her the opportunity to be considered for a permanent full-time faculty position teaching English.  Rejecting the defendants' motion to dismiss the case, which was filed on Ms. Gill's behalf by Lambda Legal, Judge Means found that "the unconstitutionality … <Read More>

Asserting that his court was without authority to act, New York Supreme Court Justice Charles J. Markey (Queens County) ruled on February 28 that a petition by a transsexual man asking the court to officially declare that he "will be known now and forever as being of the male gender" could not be issued by the court.  Justice Markey's decision, A.B.C. v. New York State Department of Health, NYLJ 1202544729247, at *1, was published by the New … <Read More>

The United States Tax Court ruled on March 5 in Sophy v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 138 T.C. No. 8, that the statutory cap on mortgage interest deductions applies in the same way to unmarried couples as it does to married couples, affirming a ruling by the Internal Revenue Service assessing a tax deficiency against a gay male couple who jointly own two houses.  The Court rejected the Petitioners' argument that Congress intended to impose … <Read More>

In an unpublished ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected an appeal of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals to deny refugee status to a gay man from India.  The court agreed with the BIA that the harassment the man had suffered at the hands of family and classmates during his youth in India did not amount to "persecution" under U.S. immigration law, and that the petitioner had failed … <Read More>

Karen Golinski and Lambda Legal are the winners in another round of the lawsuit attempting to win for Ms. Golinski the ability to obtain insurance coverage for her same-sex spouse, Amy Cunninghis, from her employer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.  On February 22, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White (N.D.Cal.) granted summary judgment to Golinski on her claim that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, as applied to her, … <Read More>

Yesterday, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg granted Lambda Legal's motion to reconsider her earlier ruling dismissing a federal equal protection claim in Garden State Equality v. Dow, 2012 Westlaw 540608, and ruled that the claim will be reinstated as part of the case.  In Garden State Equality, plaintiffs are arguing that the New Jersey Civil Union Act, enacted in response to the New Jersey Supreme Court's 2006 ruling in Lewis v. … <Read More>

Today was the deadline for the Proponents of Proposition 8 to file a motion for rehearing en banc in the 9th Circuit case of Perry v. Brown, and this morning Charles Cooper, their attorney, announced that they would be filing the petition today. 

Two weeks ago, a three-judge panel voted 2-1 to affirm former Chief District Judge Walker's August 2010 decision that Proposition 8 – which amended the California Constitution to provide that only the marriage of … <Read More>

There are two interesting First Amendment developments worth brief comment.  One involves the ongoing dispute in New York City about implementation of an Education Department ruling that would end the practice of allowing churches to hold religious worship services in public school buildings, rent-free, on Sundays, in which a new restraining order has been issued against the City.  The other involves a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court against a public school district's … <Read More>

By interesting coincidence, there were two new court decisions reported last week in which employees lost their jobs due to statements that they made concerning their religious beliefs about homosexuality, and lost subsequent claims for damages based on First Amendment claims.   In Dixon v. University of Toledo, 2012 Westlaw 370577 (N.D. Ohio, Feb. 6, 2012), the district court rejected a university administrator's claim that she had been unconstitutionally discharged after she published an op-ed … <Read More>