Due to the oddities of timing during a transitional period in the legal landscape, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals found in the context of a divorcing lesbian couple that the non-biological parent’s claim for visitation with the child conceived through donor insemination at a time when the women could not marry in their domicile of the District of Columbia must be dismissed on standing grounds. It seems that by a fluke of timing the … <Read More>
Legal Issues
LGBT Legal Organizations Call for Decriminalization of Sex Work as Federal Government Initiates Prosecution of Rentboy.com’s Owner and Employees
On August 20, leading LGBT rights legal organizations in the United States issued a joint statement supporting Amnesty International’s August 11 Resolution that advocates for the human rights of sex workers, including repeal of laws against prostitution. Just days later, on August 25, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raided the New York City offices of Rentboy.com, the world’s largest on-line escorting website, carted away boxes of business records and computers, and arrested the … <Read More>
Maryland Attorney General Opines that Adultery Rules Apply to Same-Sex Marriages
Marriage equality means equal treatment of same-sex and different-sex marriages for all purposes of law.
Such is the premise of Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh’s formal opinion issued in response to an inquiry from a member of the state’s House of Delegates, asking whether the adultery laws would be violated by sexual infidelity by a spouse in a same-sex marriage. Family Law – Divorce – Whether Same-Sex Marital Infidelity Can Qualify as Adultery for … <Read More>
Colorado Appeals Court Rules against Wedding Cake Baker in Discrimination Case
Continuing an unbroken string of judicial rejections of free exercise of religion defense to discrimination claims against small businesses that decline goods or services to same-sex couples for their commitment ceremonies or weddings, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling against Masterpiece Cakeshop, Inc., and its proprietor, Jack C. Phillips, by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Judge Daniel M. Taubman wrote the opinion for the court, released on … <Read More>
8th Circuit Rules on Pending State Marriage Equality Appeals
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26 in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a right to marry under the 14th Amendment, it technically reversed a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had in November 2014 itself reversed rulings issued by federal district judges earlier in that year striking down state bans on same-sex marriage in each of the states in the circuit. Thus, as a technical matter the … <Read More>
Nebraska Court Holds Anti-Gay Adoption/Foster Licensing Policy Violates 14th Amendment
Lancaster County, Nebraska, District Judge John A. Colborn ruled on August 5, 2015, that the state’s policy for approving adoptions of state wards and foster care licenses for same-sex couples violated the rights of gay people and same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Ruling in Stewart v. Heineman, the court invoked the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in support of its ruling, but without explicitly stating why Obergefell … <Read More>
Federal Court Rejects Recalcitrant County Clerk’s Free Exercise Claim
Judge David Bunning of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky rejected a claim by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis that she has a First Amendment right to refuse to issue any marriage licenses in order to avoid compromising her religious belief that a marriage can be only between one man and one woman.
Granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction in Miller v. Davis on August 12, Judge Bunning concluded … <Read More>
6th Circuit: Obergefell Decision Irrelevant to Equal Protection Claim
A panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 3 that the Supreme Court’s recent marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, is irrelevant to an equal protection claim asserted against Cleveland, Ohio, police officers regarding the manner in which they arrested two gay men on April 8, 2011. Referring to the “law-of-the-circuit” doctrine, Circuit Judge Alice M. Batchelder relied on pre-Obergefell 6th Circuit precedents to apply the “rational basis” test and … <Read More>
Justice Stevens on the Obergefell Decision
In a speech delivered at an American Bar Association function in Chicago on July 31, 2015, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens had this to say about the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015) (from the Justice’s prepared text):
“Probably the most significant opinion announced during the Term was Justice Kennedy’s explanation for holding that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to marry a person of … <Read More>
Federal Court Upholds $100,000 Jury Award to Lesbian Plaintiff Against United Parcel Service (UPS)
Rejecting motions to set aside the jury verdict, order a new trial or reduce damages, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein upheld a federal jury’s award of $100,000 in damages to Tameeka Roberts, an employee at the United Parcel Service facility in Maspeth, Queens, who complained that the company had tolerated a hostile environment created by her supervisor and had retaliated against her when she pressed her complaint to the New York State Division of … <Read More>