On August 2, the Richmond-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals announced that instead of holding oral argument in Gavin Grimm’s lawsuit challenging the Gloucester County School Board’s bathroom access policy, it was sending the case back to the district court for a determination whether Grimm’s recent graduation from high school made the case moot. Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 14158. The three-judge panel had tentatively scheduled an oral … <Read More>
ACLU LGBT Rights Project
Supreme Court May Consider Whether Federal Law Already Outlaws Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Lambda Legal has announced that it will petition the Supreme Court to decide whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans employment discrimination because of sex, also bans discrimination because of sexual orientation. Lambda made the announcement on July 6, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, announced that the full circuit court would not reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel that had … <Read More>
Nebraska Supreme Court Ends State’s Anti-LGBT Adoption/Foster Policies
The seven-member Nebraska Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed a decision by Lancaster County District Judge John A. Colborn that a formal published policy adopted by the state in 1995 banning adoptions or foster placements into any household with a “homosexual” in residence was unconstitutional, as was an informal policy adopted more recently by chief executive officers of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services under which “exceptions” could be made in particular cases by … <Read More>
4th Circuit Revives Transgender Teen’s Title IX Claim Against Virginia School Board
A three-judge panel of the Richmond-based U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on April 19 that U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar erred by not deferring to the U.S. Department of Education’s interpretation of its regulations to require schools to let transgender students use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Judge Doumar had dismissed a claim by G.G., a teenage transgender boy attending high school in Gloucester County, Virginia, that the school … <Read More>
North Carolina H.B. 2 Draws ACLU/Lambda Lawsuit and Numerous Protest Actions
Within days of Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, signing into law H.B. 2, an “emergency measure” that passed with unanimous support of the Republicans in the North Carolina legislature to restrict public restroom access for transgender people and preempt localities from legislating on LGBT rights, the ACLU’s national LGBT Rights Project and its North Carolina affiliate in collaboration with the Atlanta office of Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for … <Read More>
Federal Court Explains Pretrial Motion Rulings Against Transgender Student in Restroom Lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar issued an opinion on September 17 in G. G. v. Gloucester County School Board, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124905, 2015 WL 5560190 (E.D. Va.), explaining his earlier bench decision in July dismissing the plaintiff’s Title IX count and his September 4 denial of the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction in a dispute over restroom usage at the Gloucester, Virginia, High School. The plaintiff, a transgender boy, is … <Read More>
Federal Judge Enjoins Nebraska Ban on Same-Sex Marriage; 8th Circuit Stays Pending Appeal
Finding that Nebraska’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon granted a motion by seven same-sex couples to issue a preliminary injunction against its enforcement. [The case is Waters v. Ricketts, 2015 WL 852603, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25869 (D. Neb., March 2, 2015).] While denying the state’s request to stay his order pending appeal, Judge Bataillon agreed to delay his ruling … <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>
4th Circuit Panel Holds Oral Argument in Virginia Marriage Cases
A panel of three judges of the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit conducted oral arguments on May 13 in Bostic v. Schaefer, an appeal by two county clerks of a district court decision that held Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The 4th Circuit had previously granted intervenor status on the appeal to the plaintiffs in another pending marriage case, Harris v. Rainey, so both pending federal court challenges to the … <Read More>
Marriage Equality Case Developments Come Hot and Heavy
As anticipation builds for the first federal appellate arguments on marriage equality since the Supreme Court’s decision last June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act’s anti-gay federal marriage definition, new developments in marriage equality litigation continue to pile up in various parts of the country.
On Thursday, April 10, a panel of three judges of the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit will hear the state of Utah’s appeal of last … <Read More>