Press Release

Lambda Legal announced today that Michael D. Shutt, formerly Senior Director for Campus Life at Emory niversity and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Georgia, will join the nation’s leading LGBTQ legal rights organization as director of Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office, based in Atlanta.

Lambda Legal today asked a federal court to end the U.S. Social Security Administration’s (SSA) categorical refusal to provide spousal survivor’s benefits to a 64-year-old lesbian whose partner of 27 years died before same-sex couples in the State of Washington were able to marry.

Following the Senate Judiciary’s Committee’s party-line vote to advance the judicial nomination of Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Sasha J. Buchert issued the following statement.

Today, U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California William Alsup struck down the Denial of Care Rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), becoming the third judge in two weeks to vacate the rule, recognizing the rule’s discriminatory and unconstitutional scope. Judge Alsup’s ruling came in the lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the County of Santa Clara.

In response to the Republican-led Senate’s confirmation of Steven Menashi to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sasha J. Buchert, Senior Attorney at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement.

“Two judges in two days have recognized the Denial of Care Rule for what it is, an egregious and unconstitutional attack on women, LGBT people and other vulnerable populations.”

In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s party-line vote to advance the nomination of Steven Menashi to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sasha J. Buchert, Senior Attorney at Lambda Legal issued the following statement.

Today, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order and opinion in State of New York v. HHS, completely vacating the Denial of Care Rule.

Last night, Charles Rhines, a South Dakota gay man, was put to death by lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final motion that would have allowed Rhines to bring new evidence to the Court showing that antigay bias may have motivated the jury to sentence him to death.

“HHS is charged with protecting the health and wellbeing of all people, but its actions today demonstrate once again its complete disregard for its mission.”