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>
same-sex marriage
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>
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>
Marriage Equality Case Developments Come Hot and Heavy
As anticipation builds for the first federal appellate arguments on marriage equality since the Supreme Court’s decision last June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act’s anti-gay federal marriage definition, new developments in marriage equality litigation continue to pile up in various parts of the country.
On Thursday, April 10, a panel of three judges of the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit will hear the state of Utah’s appeal of last … <Read More>
Federal Judge Refuses to Stay Her Tennessee Marriage Recognition Order as New Marriage Equality Drama Plays Out in Oregon
In a gutsy move, U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger has rejected a request by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to stay her order requiring the state to recognize the out-of-state same-sex marriages of three Tennessee couples while Haslam appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. Trauger issued a short opinion explaining why on March 20.
Trauger had issued her order in Tanco v. Haslam on March 14, finding that the plaintiffs … <Read More>