State and federal courts released a flood of new LGBT-related opinions in the last few weeks of 2012. Here is a brief summary of the most significant.

The Montana Supreme Court divided 4-3 in a December 17 ruling over whether the court could issue a declaratory judgment on a claim that the statutory structure of Montana law unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex couples. Donaldson v. State, 2012 MT 288. Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote for the … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti ruled on December 3 that two New York City realtors, Manhattan Apartments, Inc., and Abba Realty Associates, violated a city law when dealing with a person living with AIDS who was seeking to rent an apartment with financial support from the NYC HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA).  The New York Law Journal published the court’s opinion on December 12.

Judge Conti awarded the plaintiff, Keith Short, $20,000 in damages, and also … <Read More>

The Supreme Court has appointed Prof. Vicki Jackson of Harvard Law School to be "amicus curiae" in United States v. Windsor to brief and argue in support of the point of view that the Court does not have jurisdiction to decide the merits of the case.  Presumably, the Court fears that because the Solicitor General (representing the government), BLAG (representing the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives), and Edie Windsor, the plaintiff-respondent, all want … <Read More>

The Supreme Court announced on December 7 that it would review the 9th Circuit's Proposition 8 ruling and the 2nd Circuit's DOMA Section 3 ruling, but in both cases it indicated that it would hear argument about whether the petitioners had standing to seek review of the decisions.  The arguments in both cases will probably take place late in March, with opinions expected by the end of the Court's term in June.  The cases are … <Read More>

Ruling on consecutive days, federal judges sitting on consecutive floors in the U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento, California, reached directly opposite views on how to analyze a California law prohibiting licensed health care professions from providing “sexual orientation change effort” therapy to patients under 18 years of age.  In Welch v. Brown, No. CIV 2:12-2484 WBS KJN (E.D.Cal., Dec. 3, 2012), Senior District Judge William B. Shubb, who was appointed to the court by President George … <Read More>

The suspense is killing us

Lambda Legal's suit on behalf of sixteen lesbian or gay Nevadans seeking the right to marry or to have their existing marriages recognized in that state suffered a setback on November 26, when U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones, concluding that the state had a rational basis for maintaining a distinction between domestic partnerships and marriage, entered judgment against the plaintiffs and ordered the Clerk to close the case.  Lambda promptly announced that it would … <Read More>