The standard rule in family law is that the legal spouse of a woman who gives birth to a child is presumed to be the child’s legal parent. Of course, the traditional statement of the rule is that when a married woman gives birth, her husband is presumed to be the child’s father. The original purpose of this doctrine was to protect the legal status of a child, who would be considered “illegitimate” if its … <Read More>
gay marriage
6th Circuit Opens Up Circuit Split on Marriage Equality
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit voted 2-1 to reverse marriage equality decisions from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee on November 6, creating a split of circuit authority that appeared calculated to provoke Supreme Court review just one month after the High Court had turned down petitions from five states in three circuits, effectively allowing marriage equality decisions to take effect in those states. The opinion for the … <Read More>
Marriage Equality: The Day After and the Sequels
The day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review pro-marriage equality rulings by three federal courts of appeals in four cases directly affecting the marriage bans in five states, another circuit was heard from. A unanimous three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on October 7 in favor of marriage equality in cases from Nevada and Idaho. Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was appointed to … <Read More>
Supreme Court Denies Review of Marriage Equality Rulings from Three Circuits
Today (October 6) the Supreme Court announced that it had denied petitions for certiorari in Bogan v. Baskin (Indiana), Walker v. Wolf (Wisconsin), Herbert v. Kitchen (Utah), McQuigg v. Bostic (Virginia), Rainey v. Bostic (Virginia), Schaefer v. Bostic (Virginia), and Smith v. Bishop (Oklahoma). In these cases the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 7th and 10th Circuits had ruled in recent months that same-sex couples have a right to marry and to have … <Read More>
Florida Federal Court Rules for Marriage Equality; 10th Circuit Stays Colorado Ruling; Virginia Clerk Petitions for Certiorari
There were several developments on the marriage equality front late last week. On August 21, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle, of the Northern District of Florida, granted a preliminary injunction to the plaintiffs in Brenner v. Scott, 2014 WL 4113100, a consolidation of two marriage equality cases, but stayed his ruling pending the state’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. On the same day, two judges of the U.S. … <Read More>
New York Human Rights Agency Rules Against Discriminatory Wedding Venue
The New York State Division of Human Rights ruled on August 8 in McCarthy v. Liberty Ridge Farm, Case Nos. 10157952 & 10157963, that a rural wedding venue violated the state’s Human Rights Law by its policy against same-sex weddings. Commissioner Helen Diane Foster formally adopted a recommended decision by Administrative Law Judge Migdalia Pares, awarding the complainants $1,500 each in compensatory damages and fining Liberty Ridge Farm $10,000 for its violation of the law.… <Read More>
Nevada Federal Judge Rejects Challenge to NDOC’s No-Domestic-Partners Rule
Nevada has a domestic partnership statute, NRS 122A.100, which allows cohabiting same-sex and different-sex couples to register as domestic partners. After the domestic partnership statute was enacted, the Nevada Department of Corrections adopted an Administrative Regulation, 815.20, which provides that incarcerated inmates are not allowed to enter into domestic partnerships, but if somebody is incarcerated who is already in a domestic partnership, they will be treated the same as somebody who is married for purposes … <Read More>
Virginia’s Cert Petition in the Marriage Equality Case
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court on August 8 on behalf of Virginia State Registrar Janet M. Rainey, a named defendant in Bostic v. Rainey, one of the two challenges to Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on July 28. (The other, Harris v. Rainey, was joined for decision at the requestof the plaintiffs, after the district court … <Read More>
Knocking on the Supreme Court’s Door for Marriage Equality
Yesterday, August 5, the governor and attorney general of Utah filed their petition for certiorari with the US Supreme Court, seeking review of the 10th Circuit’s decision that Utah’s same-sex marriage ban violates the 14th Amendment. Counsel for the defendant clerk in the Oklahoma marriage case has also announced that they will be filing a cert petition.
From the 4th Circuit, which ruled recently that Virginia’s marriage ban is unconstitutional, comes word that at least … <Read More>
The State of Play Now on Marriage Equality
Yesterday at Cornell University I participated on a Reunion Panel co-sponsored by the CU Gay & Lesbian Alumni Association (CUGALA) and the Law School, titled “One Year Later: U.S. Law and Politics in the Post-DOMA World.” My assigned task on the panel was to discuss how the response to U.S. v. Windsor has played out over the ensuing 11 months. My prepared text is in two parts: a chronology of events, and a discussion of … <Read More>