Utah Governor Gary Herbert and Attorney General Sean Reyes filed their petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court on August 5, seeking review of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Kitchen v. Herbert. At the Supreme Court, the case would be called Herbert v. Kitchen. The 10th Circuit ruled on June 25 that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment by depriving same-sex couples of the fundamental right to … <Read More>
A Third Florida Trial Court Rules in Favor of Marriage Equality in a Civil Union Recognition Case
Broward County Circuit Judge Dale Cohen has ruled that Florida must recognize a Vermont civil union for purposes of dissolving it so that one of the partners, a long-time Florida resident, can marry her girlfriend out of state. The August 4 ruling in Brassner v. Lade, Case No. 13-012058(37), is the 30th consecutive ruling for marriage equality since a federal judge in Utah ruled last December that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th … <Read More>
N.J. Federal Judge Rejects Parents’ Challenge to “Gay Conversion Therapy” Ban
U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson, who ruled last November 8 that New Jersey’s legislative ban on licensed therapists using “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE) on minors did not violate the 1st Amendment rights of the therapists, has issued a further ruling on July 30, 2014, holding in a parallel case that the statute did not violate the 1st and 14th Amendment rights of a minor seeking to gain such therapy or the minor’s parents. … <Read More>
Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Domestic Partnership Law
The seven-member Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a state constitutional challenge to the Wisconsin Domestic Partnership Act. The July 31 ruling in Appling v. Walker, 2014 WI 96, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 533, in an opinion by Justice N. Patrick Crooks, Jr., held that the state’s marriage amendment, passed in 2006, did not prevent the legislature from creating a legal status for same-sex couples that would carry many, but not all, of the rights of marriage. … <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>
Alaska Supreme Court Rules Surviving Same-Sex Partner May Qualify for Death Benefit
The Alaska Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on July 25 holding that the surviving same-sex partner of an employee killed while at work may qualify to receive a death benefit under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Law. The ruling in Harris v. Millennium Hotel, 2014 Alas. LEXIS 149, was not particularly surprising in light of this court’s recent track record in applying equal protection policies to protect same-sex couples despite the state’s anti-gay Marriage Amendment. … <Read More>
A Second Florida Trial Judge Rules for Marriage Equality
Just days after Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis M. Garcia ruled that Florida’s constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage violate the 14th Amendment, a second Florida trial judge, Sarah Zabel of Miami-Dade County, reached the same conclusion in Pareto v. Ruvin and State of Florida, No. 14-1661 CA 24, announced on July 25. As in the earlier case, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately responded by filing a notice of appeal, but Judge Zabel … <Read More>
Nassau County (N.Y.) Family Court Rejects Lesbian Co-Parent Custody Petition
Nassau County (NY) Family Court Judge Edmund M. Dane rejected a lesbian co-parent’s joint custody petition on June 30, finding that despite the 2011 passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Law, the state’s child custody laws fail to acknowledge parental claims of a co-parent who was not married to the child’s birth mother when the child was born. Jann P. v. Jamie P., NYLJ 1202664272007 (published July 23, 2014).
According to Judge Dane’s opinion, the … <Read More>
New Developments in Colorado on Same-Sex Marriage
Two trial judges in Colorado advanced the cause of same-sex marriage on July 23, as U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore in Denver issued an Order in Burns v. Hickenlooper, No. 14-cv-01817-RM-KLM, finding, in accord with recent 10th Circuit precedents, that Colorado’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the 14th Amendment, and Boulder County District Judge Andrew Hartman issued an Order in State of Colorado v. Hillary Hall, No. 2014CV30833, denying the state’s motion to order … <Read More>
National Youth Orchestra of the USA at Carnegie Hall
I was at Carnegie Hall last night to hear the first performance in their “home hall” of this year’s version of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. David Robertson, music director of the St. Louis Symphony and the Sydney (Australia) Symphony, conducted an all-teen ensemble in music by Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Samuel Adams, and Modest Mussorgsky. Robertson’s brother-in-law, violin virtuoso Gil Shaham, was soloist in the Britten concerto.
Last year … <Read More>