In the News

"All of King & Spalding's employees – lawyers and non-lawyers – are barred from advocating for the Respect for Marriage Act – the bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act – in the 112th Congress, according to the terms of the contract to defend DOMA that King & Spalding partner Paul Clement signed on the firm's behalf on April 14.

Fifteen years ago we successfully represented Jamie Nabozny after he endured years of bullying and harassment at school. The ruling from the court in his case made clear for the first time that the Constitution protects gay students from harassment and abuse just as much as it protects other kids. We at Lambda Legal are very proud of that; the case spoke volumes then, and still does.

But there's too long a line of schools cases following Jamie's. Too many schools around the country still allow the abuse of LGBT students to such a degree that Lambda Legal and our sister organizations can predict the fact patterns. There are often three common elements to the lawsuits we bring on behalf of students who experience anti-LGBT bullying, and we can do something to change all of them.

"It was a story that seemed right out of the 1980s: When Dr. Robert Franke was evicted in 2009 from a Little Rock, Ark., assisted-living facility just for having HIV, it felt like the old days—before the HIV civil-rights battles, before the public health campaigns, before all the medical breakthroughs. Thirty years into the epidemic, how could the most basic information about the virus's transmission have eluded a retirement community promising 'round-the-clock care'? How was it possible that people were still being kicked into the street for their HIV status?

"A gay couple who wanted both their names to appear on the birth certificate of the Louisiana child they adopted in New York have lost their latest round in federal court.

"...An attorney for the gay rights group Lamda Legal said the complex 72-page decision would have to be analyzed before a decision would be made on whether to appeal.

"Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr., wrote the dissent, joined by four others. Saying New York recognizes both men as parents, Wiener wrote, 'I have searched the Constitution in vain for a Half Faith and Credit Clause.'"

"A lawsuit filed last year on behalf of six gay couples alleging the state failed to provide equal rights to gays and lesbians short of marriage has been withdrawn, attorneys said yesterday.

"The action was no longer needed after Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed into law a bill legalizing civil unions in Hawaii, gay rights advocacy group Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii said in a news release....

These are frustrating, tantalizing days for many of the same-sex couples who seized the chance to marry in recent years.

"Whomever Gov. Scott Walker chooses to represent the state in a case challenging the state’s domestic partner registry will have to share the defense with a pair of lawyers working for Lambda Legal, a national gay rights group....

"The Obama administration will press ahead with its fight against one federal employee’s bid to obtain health insurance for her same-sex spouse, according to a government court filing on Monday.

"The decision by the Justice Department comes days after it announced that a federal statute defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman—known as the Defense of Marriage Act—was unconstitutional.

"But the headlines missed the technical but important note in Holder's announcement: the Obama administration believes that any law affecting lesbians and gay men deserves "heightened scrutiny" by the courts.

"A survivor of a same-sex marriage can inherit as a spouse, an appeals court said Thursday in a ruling a gay-rights legal group called the first appellate decision of its kind in New York.

"While same-sex couples can't wed in the state, J. Craig Leiby and H. Kenneth Ranftle were legally married in Canada, so Leiby is entitled to recognition as the surviving spouse in a dispute over Ranftle's estate, the appellate judges said in upholding a lower court's decision.