Two recent court decisions show how far we have come in getting the judicial system to understand and respect gender transition. In Miller v. Angel, No. GD053180 (Cal. Superior Ct., Los Angeles County, August 6, 2014), and Beatie v. Beatie, No. 1 CA-CV 13-0209 (Arizona Court of Appeals, August 13, 2014), the courts found that they do have jurisdiction to dissolve out-of-state marriages between a transgender man and a woman, which would first require recognizing … <Read More>
New Jersey Appellate Division Revives Step-Parent Custody/Visitation Claim by Former Domestic Partner of Birth Mother
In a complicated three-way parental rights case, the New Jersey Appellate Division ruled on August 6 that the Mercer County Superior Court should not have dismissed without a plenary hearing a custody/visitation action by a child’s former lesbian step-parent. K.A.F. v. D.L.M., 2014 N.J. Super. LEXIS 112, 2014 WL 3843057. Key to the court’s ruling was that the consent of only one legal parent is necessary to the determination whether a third party has formed … <Read More>
4th Circuit Denies Motion to Stay Mandate in Marriage Ruling Beyond August 20
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that decided the case of Bostic v. Schaeffer, striking as unconstitutional Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, denied a motion by one of the defendants, Prince William County Clerk Michele McQuigg, to stay its mandate beyond the short time that it had authorized in its decision. That effectively places the question whether same-sex couples can begin marrying in Virginia soon into the hands … <Read More>
The String is Broken – Tennessee Judge Rules Against Marriage Recognition
After a string of about three dozen affirmative marriage equality rulings by federal and state judges, including 2-1 rulings by two federal circuit courts of appeals, a Tennessee judge, Roane County Circuit Court Judge Russell E. Simmons, Jr., has departed from the growing consensus and ruled on August 5 that the court is bound to reject a federal constitutional claim for marriage recognition because of Baker v. Nelson and the public policy exception to the … <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>
The 2014 Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, New York
I’ve just returned from a weekend in the Cooperstown, New York, area, where I attended three of the four main stage presentations of this year’s edition of the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. Glimmerglass takes it name from Lake Glimmerglass in the Leatherstocking Tales of James Fennimore Cooper. Cooper, whose family gave its name to Cooperstown, was thinking of Otsego Lake when he created the fictional Lake Glimmerglass for his tales of Indians and settlers in colonial … <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>
6th Circuit Holds Marathon 3-Hour Argument in Marriage Equality Cases
On August 6 a three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit held a marathon three-hour argument for appeals in six marriage equality decisions coming from all four states in the circuit: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Eight attorneys — four representing the states and four representing groups of same-sex couple plaintiffs — struggled with defining fundamental rights, parsing state justifications for excluding same-sex couples from marriage, figuring out whether … <Read More>
Another Marriage Equality Ruling from Florida – Albeit a Narrow One
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Diana Lewis ruled on August 5 that the Florida ban on recognizing same-sex marriages was unconstitutional as applied to the case pending before her, in which a Pennsylvania man is seeking to be appointed the Personal Representative in Florida for his deceased husband’s estate. Lewis found that there was no rational basis to deny the appointment.
Frank Bangor and Jason Simpson were married in Delaware in 2013. Bangor passed away … <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>