Responding to questions posed by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White (N.D.Cal.) in Karen Golinski's suit for benefits for her same-sex spouse, Golinski v. The United States Office of Personnel Management, No. C 4:10-00257-JSW, the Obama Administration has taken the position that its decision not to defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal statutory provision that requires the federal government to deny recognition for any and every purpose to same-sex … <Read More>

On February 25, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its brief supporting its appeal of U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips' ruling last year in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, 716 F.Supp.2d 884 (C.D.Cal. 2010), in which she held that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy, codified in 10 U.S.C.

The 9th Circuit gave notice today that it received a motion to intervene in the pending appeal in Perry v. Schwarzenegger by Chuck Storey, who was elected Imperial County Clerk last year and recently took office.  Last fall, the Imperial County Deputy Clerk unsuccessfully sought to intervene as an Appellant in order to lend the standing of a governmental office so that the district court's decision striking down Prop 8 could be appealed.  The question … <Read More>

Adding to the body of appellate precedents recognizing same-sex marriages in New York, the Appellate Division, 1st Department, ruled today in Ranftle v. Leiby, No. 4214 (Index 4585/08), that a same-sex marriage performed in Canada in 2008 would be recognized in New York for purposes of probating the will of one of the spouses. 

The unanimous ruling by a four-judge panel, affirming N.Y. County Surrogate Kristen Booth Glen's refusal to allow the decedent's brother … <Read More>

Facing an imminent deadline on March 11 to file either an answer or a motion to dismiss in two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act pending in federal district courts in New York and Connecticut, which necessarily meant taking a position on the level of judicial scrutiny to be applied to a law that discriminates based on sexual orientation within a circuit (the 2nd Circuit) that has no established … <Read More>

The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed a trial court's ruling that a lesbian mother's former partner was entitled to a visitation order to maintain contact with the child whose conception she helped to plan and for whom she was a primary parent during the early years of the child's life.  Relying on the doctrine of in loco parentis, the court concluded, by a vote of 5-2, that the record supported Perry County Circuit Court Judge … <Read More>

The Texas Court of Appeals (1st District – Houston) ruled on February 10 that the Harris County District Court had properly ordered the registration of a California parentage judgment involving a gay male couple who were intended parents under a gestational surrogacy agreement.  Ruling unanimously in Berwick v. Wagner, No. 01-09-00834-CV, the court found that such registration complied with the requirements under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), a uniform law … <Read More>

A unanimous panel of the New York Appellate Division, 2nd Department, ruled on February 8 that the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in Northern Westchester County did not violate the County's Human Rights Ordinance when they extended domestic partnership benefits to same-sex partners of county employees but refused to extend the benefits to the unmarried different-sex partner of an employee.  Reversing a decision by the County's Human Rights Commission in Matter of Putnam/Northern Westchester … <Read More>

The 9th Circuit panel before which the government's appeal of Judge Phillips' ruling holding the "don't ask, don't tell" unconstitutional is pending, made this docket entry today:

Docket Text:
Filed order MOATT: (LN) The opposed motion to hold these appeals in abeyance is denied. The briefing schedule is reset as follows: the government

With a motion for class certification having been filed and scheduled for hearing on February 24, and having just survived a motion to dismiss by the federal defendants, six Californians are poised to strike a heavy blow at the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Section 3, which mandates that only different-sex unions be recognized as marriages for all purposes of federal law.  U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's January 18 decision on the motion in Dragovich v. … <Read More>