An article published this morning, January 12, 2012, in the Globe & Mail, Canada's leading daily newspaper, reports that a federal Department of Justice lawyer has argued that a divorce petition filed by a same-sex couple married in Toronto in 2005 who were not then and are not now Canadian residents should be dismissed for two reasons: (1) there is a one-year residency requirement for divorce (an uncontroversial point, which the petitioners were evidently trying to test … <Read More>

Finding that the Iowa Supreme Court's marriage equality mandate in Varnum v. Brien was intended to extend to all aspects of state law, Judge Eliza J. Ovrom of the Iowa 5th Judicial District Court (Polk County), ruled on January 4, 2012, that the same-sex spouse of a woman who had given birth to a child conceived through donor insemination was entitled to be listed as one of the child's parents on the child's birth certificate, with … <Read More>

In a case of first impression for Florida, the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled on December 23, 2011, that a child born through in vitro fertilization using an ovum from its birth mother's same-sex partner, is legally the child of both women.  T.M.H. v. D.M.T., 2011 Westlaw 6437247.  Reversing a decision by Brevard County Circuit Judge Charles Crawford, the 2-1 appellate ruling concluded that failing to recognize the plaintiff's parental rights would violate … <Read More>

Facing legal questions of first impression for the state, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Francis B. Schultz ruled on December 13 that the father of twin girls conceived through gestational surrogacy should be awarded sole custody of the now-5-year-old girls, despite the court having earlier ruled that the surrogacy contract signed by the parties was void as a matter of New Jersey law and that the gestational surrogate, although not genetically related to the twins, … <Read More>

Although the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility concluded in a report entitled "An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring in the Department of Justice Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program" (June 24, 2008) that the Justice Department had improperly excluded from consideration applicants whose past associations suggested that they might not be "politically correct" as that term might be used within the Justice Department during the Bush … <Read More>

A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has upheld a district court's refusal of preliminary injunctive relief to a counseling student who was expelled from the Counselor Education Program at Augusta (Georgia) State University when she refused to participate in a remediation program on LGBTQ issues as a prerequisite to participating in the Program's clinical practicum involving actual one-on-one counseling with students.  The Program faculty had concluded from statements … <Read More>

Reflecting the continuing disagreement among the federal courts about the precedential scope of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a petition for habeas corpus brought by an Ohio man who was convicted under a state incest law for engaging in sexual conduct with his adult step-daughter.  The panel held, first, … <Read More>

Ruling unanimously in Russell v. ExpressJet Airlines, Inc., 2011 ME 123 (Dec. 6, 2011), the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed an award of $500,000 damages to Edward Russell, who persuaded a jury that he had been the victim of employment discrimination based on his sexual orientation in violation of the state's Human Rights Act.

Edward Russell joined Continental Express in Portland as an agent in 1998, and was promoted to supervisor the following year.  When … <Read More>

U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love denied a Texas school district's motion to dismiss a constitutional tort suit brought by the mother of a lesbian high school student on behalf of her daughter, who alleges that she was "outed" to her mother by the coaches of her high school softball team in violation of her constitutional right to privacy.  Wyatt v. Kilgore Independent School District, 2011 Westlaw 6016467 (E.D. Texas, Nov. 30, 2011). 

Judge … <Read More>