1/9/2010

"Gay-rights activists intend to take the fight to allow gay couples to marry in New Jersey directly to the state Supreme Court, advocates said yesterday, one day after the state Senate defeated a bill to allow same-sex marriage.

"...'Our goal is to file something when it's ready and well-prepared, and we think that will be in a matter of weeks,' said Leslie Gabel-Brett, director of education and public affairs for Lambda Legal.

1/11/2010

"Opening statements were expected Monday in Federal District Court in San Francisco, in a case that is being anxiously watched by gay rights groups and supporters of traditional marriage nationwide.

"...Indeed, several of the figures who helped pass Proposition 8 are expected to be called to testify under oath, something that gay rights advocates hope will play in their favor.

1/11/2009

"After a run of setbacks at the state level, gay rights advocates will take the campaign for same-sex marriage into a federal courtroom on Monday, starting down a treacherous avenue that ends at a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by conservatives.

1/8/2010

"The State Senate on Thursday rejected a proposal that would have made New Jersey the sixth state in the nation to allow marriages involving same-sex couples. The vote was the latest in a succession of setbacks for advocates of gay marriage across the country.

"With the effort to win legislative approval now dead, supporters of same-sex marriage vowed to focus their efforts on the state’s highest court, which in 2006 ordered lawmakers to give same-sex couples the same rights as others whether or not they called such unions marriages.

(San Francisco, December 22, 2009) — Chief Judge of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Alex Kozinski today issued an order confirming that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) has failed to appeal in a timely fashion from his prior order that a married lesbian court employee is entitled to spousal health insurance for her wife.

12/22/2009

"Last month, Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, ordered the Office of Personnel Management to allow health insurance companies serving federal staffers to provide benefits for same-sex spouses of the court's workers.

"But on Friday, the OPM told the attorney for Karen Golinski, a court employee, that the agency would not obey the judge's order.

"After the Office of Personnel Management issued a statement Friday explaining that it would not provide benefits to the same-sex spouse of attorney Karen Golinski from ninth circuit court of appeals, Lambda Legal's Jennifer Pizer told The Advocate that she took issue with the agency’s analysis and also the informal way in which it was disseminated.

12/18/2009

"Lambda Legal is the gay ACLU. They are THE gay civil rights legal group. And they're none too pleased that the Obama administration is refusing to abide by a court order directing them to provide health benefits to the lesbian partner of a gay federal employee.

12/18/2009

"The U.S. Office of Personnel Management still thinks it can't authorize health care coverage for the same-sex spouse of a federal court employee even though a judge has ordered the agency to do, a government lawyer said Friday.

"...Golinski's lawyer, Jennifer Pizer of the gay rights group Lambda Legal, disagreed that Kozinski's determination was any less authoritative because it arose out of an employee benefits dispute.

From December 2009 eNews (Vol. 6, No. 11)

It's customary at this time to reflect on the past twelve months, and here at Lambda Legal, we are celebrating our victories and taking stock of our work so we can strengthen and expand it. But mainly, we are busy looking forward! We’ve got a packed docket ahead of us, having launched a range of new cases in recent weeks all across the country, including: