A federal court in Maryland today ordered the U.S. Department of State to recognize the U.S. citizenship and issue a U.S. passport to 1-year old Kessem Kiviti, a baby born abroad to a same-sex married couple who was refused recognition as a U.S. citizen from the moment of her birth by the Trump Administration despite federal law giving her that right.
A federal court in Maryland heard arguments today in a case brought by Lambda Legal and Immigration Equality and pro bono counsel Morgan Lewis on behalf of a married gay couple and their daughter Kessem Kiviti, whom the Trump Administration continues to refuse to recognize as a U.S. citizen since birth, even though both of her parents are U.S. citizens.
The couple was turned away by a government-funded foster care agency because they, as a lesbian couple, did not meet the agency’s religious criteria, which excludes prospective foster parents who are not evangelical Protestant Christian or who are same-sex couples of any faith.
The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, an appeal by Catholic Social Services (CSS), a taxpayer-funded child welfare agency, which claims a constitutional right to turn away same-sex couples seeking to provide loving homes to children in the public foster care system.
A federal magistrate judge today recommended striking down as unconstitutional the U.S. Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) categorical denial of survivor’s benefits to surviving same-sex partners who were barred from marrying due to discriminatory state marriage bans.
Lambda Legal, Immigration Equality and pro bono counsel Morgan Lewis this week urged federal district courts in Georgia and Maryland to compel the U.S. State Department to recognize the U.S. citizenship of two children born abroad to married same-sex couples who are themselves U.S. citizens.