When U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree ruled on November 4 in Marie v. Moser, 2014 WL 5598128, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157093, that Kansas’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, he issues a preliminary injunction directing the defendants not to enforce the ban, but stayed the effect of this Order until 5 pm on November 11 to give the state time to seek a stay from the 10th Circuit or the Supreme Court. Judge … <Read More>
First Marriage Equality Ruling in from South Carolina
There are two federal district court challenges pending in South Carolina. The earlier-filed one, Bradacs v. Haley, sought recognition for a same-sex couple’s marriage contracted in the District of Columbia. It was filed by two local attorneys in Columbia, South Carolina. In a November 10 order in that case, District Judge J. Michelle Childs granted a motion to dismiss Governor Nikki Haley as a defendant in the case, finding that she played no direct role … <Read More>
Federal Courts in Missouri and West Virginia Issue Marriage Equality Rulings
On November 7, one day after the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected marriage equality claims from Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky, federal district courts in Missouri and West Virginia issued new marriage equality rulings. Chief U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers of the Southern District of West Virginia granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs in McGee v. Cole, a case brought by Lambda Legal and The Tinney Law Firm. Senior U.S. District Judge Ortrie … <Read More>
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>
October Was a Monster Month for Marriage Equality in the United States
In preparing to record the November issue of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes podcast today, I put together a chronology of marriage equality legal developments during October as a reference source, and decided to post it here. Any additions or corrections are welcome. I didn’t include every little motion filing, but tried to hit the most significant things. Of course, the main event was the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in all the pending marriage cases … <Read More>
Kansas Marriage Equality Ruling May Go to the 10th Circuit for En Banc Review
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled on November 4 in Marie v. Moser that the Kansas ban on same-sex marriage violates the 14th Amendment. The Obama appointee, who has been a federal judge for less than a year, rejected the state’s argument that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1972 ruling in Baker v. Nelson “controls the outcome here” and instead applied the recent decisions by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Kitchen v. Herbert and Bishop … <Read More>
11th Circuit Vacates Child Porn Conviction Finding Jury Might Have Been Biased
An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel voted 2-1 in United States v. Bates, 2014 WL 5421846, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20564 (Oct. 27, 2014), to vacate the child pornography conviction of Cameron Dean Bates, who had been convicted by a Southern District of Florida jury and sentenced to 240 months in federal prison for receiving, accessing, distributing, and possessing child pornography. The majority of the panel concluded that the trial judge … <Read More>
Federal Court in Puerto Rico Dismisses Marriage Equality Case
U.S. District Judge Juan M. Perez-Gimenez ruled on October 21, 2014, that he was bound by a precedential decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Lambda Legal on behalf of Puerto Rican same-sex couples seeking either to marry or to have their out-of-state marriages recognized by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The judge based his ruling in Conde-Vidal v. Garcia-Padilla on the 1st Circuit’s 2012 … <Read More>
Wyoming Marriage Equality Begins on Tuesday, Oct. 21
State authorities in Wyoming announced that Attorney General Peter Michael will file a notice with the U.S. District Court on Tuesday, October 21, certifying that the state will not appeal U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl’s Order, filed on Friday, October 17, confirming that under 10th Circuit precedents the state must allow same-sex couples to marry. The judge had stayed his order until October 23 at 5 pm unless the state certified earlier that it … <Read More>
Federal Court Grants Summary Judgment for Marriage Equality in Two Arizona Cases
Granting pending summary judgment motions in two pending marriage equality cases, Senior U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick ruled on October 16 that Arizona’s constitutional and statutory same-sex marriage bans violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Connolly v. Jeanes, 2:14-cv-00024 JWS (D. Ariz.); Majors v. Horne, 2:14-cv-00518 JWS (D. Ariz.). Sedwick, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court in Alaska by President George H.W. Bush, hears many Arizona cases … <Read More>