The bankruptcy case that became one of many battlegrounds in the fight over the Defense of Marriage Act has come to an end, with the Justice Department and congressional Republicans bowing out of the fight.

On March 26, 2003, Paul Smith argued to the United States Supreme Court that the justices should declare sodomy laws unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution—despite the court's opinion of less than 20 years earlier to the contrary.

In January 2010, thanks to the hard work of Lambda Legal and others, the U.S. government lifted its blanket ban on HIV travel and immigration. That means that a person's HIV status alone is no longer grounds for deportation from the United States. However, immigration officials can still exclude or deport a person if they feel the person is likely to become a "public charge"—in other words, someone who would likely need financial support or long-term medical care from the government. Public charge findings are usually based on the receipt of cash benefits, such as welfare. Non-cash benefits, such as Medicaid, housing assistance and child-care assistance cannot be used to make a public charge finding.

Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on the injunction issued by the district court in the Log Cabin Republicans' challenge to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT). The government is once again enjoined from enforcing DADT anywhere in the world. The government was enjoined once before for eight days, before a different set of Ninth Circuit judges issued the stay of the injunction in this case.

It doesn’t take a special commission, as the New Jersey legislature created in 2007, to show how civil unions, while providing valuable protections to couples, ultimately fall short. Fortunately, John survived this horrendous accident. But the traumatic memory of how their relationship was incomprehensible to the hospital lingers. It was one of the reasons Daniel joined Lambda Legal’s new lawsuit for marriage equality in New Jersey.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief strongly arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional in a case brought by Lambda Legal and Morrison & Foerster LLP on behalf of Karen Golinski, a lesbian federal court employee denied medical coverage for her wife, whom she married when same-sex couples could do so in California. The DOJ had previously announced they would no longer defend DOMA, but this is the first legal filing in the country in which they have fully argued to a court that DOMA is unconstitutional. They asked the federal court not to dismiss Golinski's claim.

(New York, June 30, 2011) - Today, the Appellate Division, Third Department, of the New York State Supreme Court, issued a ruling that the New York Human Rights Law (NYHRL) does protect public school students against discrimination and harassment. Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Thomas W. Ude, Jr., Senior Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal:

"We applaud the Third Department's ruling that the New York State Human Rights Law protects all public school students against discrimination and harassment.

"Seven gay couples and many of their children filed a lawsuit Wednesday to demand New Jersey recognize gay marriage, saying it's the only way to solve inequities created by the state's four-year-old civil union law.

"...The lawsuit, filed in state court by the national gay rights law firm Lambda Legal and the New Jersey gay rights group Garden State Equality, came less than a week after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law allowing gay marriage in that neighboring state. But it's the latest step in a nine-year legal battle in New Jersey."

"Seven gay and lesbian New Jersey couples, along with many of their children, are going to court to try to force the state to recognize gay marriage.

"The families say in their legal complaint that the state's civil union law designed to give gay couples the same legal protections as married couples has not fulfilled that promise.

"...Their lawyer, Lambda Legal's Hayley Gorenberg, said most people in places like medical offices don't want to discriminate against them, but don't understand the rights conferred through civil unions.

Days after New York voted for marriage equality, Lambda Legal goes back to court in New Jersey representing Garden State Equality and seven same-sex couples.