Archive for DOMA
Argentina and the Inexorable Logic of Marriage Equality
Marriage equality is about to become law in Argentina, a solidly Catholic (70%-90% of the population) country that also has preferences for Catholicism built into national law. Argentina thus becomes the first Latin American country to fully recognize the basic dignity of same-sex couples. Buenos Aires, here I come! (Well, probably not.)
With each nation, state, [...]
The Obama Administration Must Appeal the DOMA Decisions
In today’s column over at 365gay.com (not gay on Feb. 29?), I argue that the government needs to appeal the decision by a Massachusetts federal district judge that ruled section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional.
I even think that the case might come out favorably even when it reaches the Supreme Court.
Issues With Balkin’s Analysis of DOMA Decisions
Having read in the NY Times a couple of confident-sounding quotes from Yale law prof Jack Balkin — critical of the two DOMA decisions handed down yesterday, and predicting their certain reversal on appeal — I tracked down his blog post for more detail. Doing so only ripened my sense that his analysis is questionable.
I [...]
Parsing the Two DOMA Decisions
Big, good, and mostly expected news: Federal district court judge Joseph L. Tauro ruled tonight, in two separate cases (Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. HHS and Gill v. OPM), that section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional. It’s late, and I’ve just slogged through all 75 pages of the decisions, but there are a couple of things [...]
LGBT Q&A
In today’s 365gay column, I answer a few of the questions that have come in since I started this weekly gig:
Is DOMA constitutional?
Should we just ask Justice Kennedy what he thinks about marriage equality?
How can Obama be so good and so bad on LGBT issues at the same time?
How Much Will New Rules for Family and Medical Leave Act Help Same-Sex Couples? Not Much
Some good news is coming in about the Labor Department’s imminent announcement of new regulations that allow workers to take (unpaid) leave in order to care for their children.
Here’s the important language from the Family and Medical Leave Act:
§ 2612. Leave requirement
(a) In general.
(1) Entitlement to leave. [A]n eligible employee shall be entitled to a [...]
National Legal Panel at Equality Forum: Opening Wide for a Fire Hose of Information
Did Lambda Legal’s Executive Director, Kevin Cathcart, really “start the LGBT movement for legal rights,” as National Law Panel moderator Brad Sears playfully suggested at the opening of last night’s Equality Forum event?
If he didn’t, he certainly has a deep understanding of what most people think of as the legal “movement” – the litigation that’s [...]
Civil Unions Coming to Hawaii?
In 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court seemed on the verge of bringing marriage equality to the state. In Baehr v. Lewin, the court held that the ban on gay marriages was a form of sex discrimination, and that the state therefore bore a heavy burden of justification. The case was sent back to the lower [...]
2009: A Year of Blogging Obsessively (300 Posts and Counting)
Well, I have a few minutes before family and friends return to sweep me away in a haze of New Year’s Eve partying. (Of course, with young children “a haze of partying” ends well before midnight. We can do a faux countdown with them.)
To all of the readers — regular and occasional — who have [...]
The Mighty Kozinski?
In a battle that only lawyers and marriage debate partisans (like me) could love, federal appellate court judge Alex Kozinski has been sparring with the Obama DOJ over whether the government must (or even can) provide federal benefits to the same-sex partner of a staff attorney for the 9th Circuit (Kozinski’s court). You can find [...]