Tag Archives: Group: Lambda Legal

Des Moines Register: A same-sex couple filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Iowa Department of Health, seeking a new death certificate for their stillborn child after one of their names was removed from the original death certificate. | Lambda Legal press release

Lambda Legal: Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed a lower court ruling and remanded the case of Lambda Legal client, Richard Roe, back to district court. Roe applied to be a police officer with the Atlanta Police Department (APD), but was denied employment because of his HIV status. | Roe v. City of Atlanta

TPM: But Young’s got a little high-powered help. Her attorney, from the Alliance Defense Fund, argues that the lawsuit threatens Young’s religious freedom because “no business owner should be forced to violate his or her religious beliefs because someone is offended by those beliefs.”

LaTimes.com: The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that the U.S. and Florida constitutions trump Florida law and give parenting rights to both women. State law, it added, has not kept up with the times. | D.M.H. v. D.M.T., No. 5D09-3559 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. (5th), Dec. 23, 2011)

ADF Allied Attorney Jim Hochberg appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the suit in Hawaii that lesbians have filed against a bed and breakfast. | MP3 audio 33:53 mins

Hawaii News Now: The B and B’s attorney, Jim Hochberg, says he hasn’t seen the suit so he cannot comment. Lambda Legal says it hasn’t been able to find a license permitting Aloha Bed and Breakfast to operate . . . Hochberg says he’s defending Young with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund.

Newser: Reached by phone, owner Phyllis Young declined to comment and referred questions to her attorney. Honolulu attorney Jim Hochberg said he is representing her on behalf of the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization of attorneys representing people whose religious freedom is infringed. He said he hadn’t yet seen the complaint.

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal filed a discrimination lawsuit today in the First Circuit Court of Hawai’i on behalf of a lesbian couple rejected by a commercial business establishment, Aloha Bed & Breakfast, because of the owner’s personal antigay beliefs.” | Complaint: Cervelli v. Aloha Bed & Breakfast

Lambda Legal: “The single most important principle contained in the guidelines is that affirming the sexual orientation and gender identity and expression of LGBTQ youth in care protects young peoples’ emotional safety and ensures positive outcomes,” said Flor Bermudez, Lambda Legal’s Youth in Out-of-Home Care Staff Attorney. “We are pleased that the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) will make the Recommended Practice Guidelines available to every state child welfare agency in the country to help meet the needs of LGBTQ children.”

The Associated Press: Keeton’s lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group that that presses faith-based cases in court nationwide. It argues that the First Amendment protects Keeton’s rights to share her beliefs about gays with others.

Lambda Legal (includes video): Today, the White House announced that former Lambda Legal client Janice Langbehn will be one of 13 recipients of the 2011 Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor.

A Superior Court judge let a lawsuit seeking marriage for same-sex couples in New Jersey proceed, but she sharply pared down the number of allegations in the case against the state.

OneNewsNow.com: But as Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) points out, such incidences are happening in schools all across the country. “They’re just bypassing parents, especially on some of the most controversial stuff that students are exposed to — sex education, the battle regarding the homosexual agenda,” he laments. “The school districts are starting just to say, ‘Well, we know what’s better for your kids. We’re not even gonna tell you what we’re doing.’”

Idaho Statesman: The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based firm that presses faith-based cases in court, issued a statement Monday saying the district was “duped” by gay rights activists into ditching the proposed parental consent policy. “School districts do not need to give in to activist demands that parents be left ignorant about what their children are exposed to,” said Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, in a statement.

Lambda Legal provided inaccurate legal information to officials so students can join sexually focused clubs without parental permission

Lambda Legal: Lambda Legal and the Idaho Safe Schools Coalition today applauded a Boise-area school district for approving a student club policy that eliminated a new requirement that students get parental permission to participate in clubs and other restrictions that would have harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and violated their rights.

Lambda Legal: Lambda Legal, along with several Iowa-based legal organizations, will host two forums on how best to preserve a fair and impartial judiciary after last year’s ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court justices.

Lambda Legal: Last week, the school board issued a revised policy that now makes clear that student clubs are not prohibited from discussing “sexual orientation including such subjects as combating unfair treatment, prejudices, or stereotypes.” However, the policy retains the requirement for parental consent to join a club. Furthermore, it maintains a three-tier structure for student organizations (exempt, curriculum, and non-curriculum), relegating all non-curriculum clubs, including Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), to the third tier and significantly limiting their ability to access school resources.

A decision by a federal appeals court in New Orleans threatens to undermine hard-won gains by gays and lesbians, and the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review it.

Lambda Legal: Yesterday, Lambda Legal filed an amicus brief in a case involving Cristina Ojeda and Monica Alcota, a married binational lesbian couple from Queens, New York. The friend-of-the-court brief argues that immigration officials are incorrectly relying on an inapplicable case for authority to continue deportation proceedings while the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is being challenged. | Brief

“A gay rights organization is seeking Supreme Court review of the case of a gay couple who wanted both their names to appear on the birth certificate of the Louisiana child they adopted in New York.”

Lambda Legal: Today Lambda Legal and Morrison & Foerster LLP filed an amended complaint challenging the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in its case representing Karen Golinski, a federal court employee denied spousal health benefits for her wife.

Lambda Legal: Lambda Legal, Knights Out, OutServe, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Anti-Defamation League today filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals urging it to uphold a lower court ruling that declared “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) unconstitutional. The brief was filed in support of a case originally filed in 2004 by the Log Cabin Republicans.

Milwaukee News Buzz: Meanwhile, Wisconsin Family Action is getting legal help from the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization based in Arizona. It’s fielding three staff attorneys and two in Wisconsin that it has described in press releases as “ADF-allied,” Michael Dean of Waukesha and Taylor Samuel of Kenosha.

federal judge refused Wednesday to order the government to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco, coverage the Obama administration has denied because of a law the president considers unconstitutional

ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco writes at the Speak Up Movement University Blog: Non-profit advocacy groups often raise funds by highlighting the actions of groups their donors oppose, and I have no gripe with Lambda highlighting Julea Ward’s important civil rights case to its donors. In fact, it could be viewed as a form of flattery that Lambda’s letter spills most of its ink on ADF cases. My problem is with the letter’s complete misrepresentation of Ms. Ward’s case (there appear to be other inaccuracies in the letter that exceed the scope of this post).

Greg Scott, ADF National Media Relations Director, writes at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: “President Obama took 61% of the California vote to Sen. McCain’s 37%. Proposition 8, California’s state constitutional marriage protection amendment, cruised to a comfortable 52.24%-47.76% win. The math isn’t all that hard. The fact is, plenty of folks who voted for then-candidate Obama also voted to restore the definition of marriage in deep-Blue California.”

E.J. Graff writes at NPR: “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. That obscure legal term means that the Obama administration believes — and will argue officially — that the federal and state governments can’t treat lesbians and gay men any less well than it treats our heterosexual siblings without giving an exceptionally good reason.”

Lambda Legal: “A federal judge has requested the U.S. Department of Justice to explain how it plans to defend denying spousal health benefits to a lesbian federal employee, following an announcement yesterday by the Obama administration that it believes the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White has given government attorneys until Monday, February 28, to respond.”

Lisa Keen writes at theWindy City Times: It is possible—just as happened in California—that some other entity might attempt to mount its own defense of DOMA in the pending cases. Last October, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, filed a motion in the two First Circuit cases, seeking to be named intervenor-defendant. Smith, aided by the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund, said at the time that the Justice Department was providing “no defense at all” for DOMA. He withdrew his motion a few weeks later, without comment. [this report contains a lengthy list of responses from homosexual groups]

Lambda Legal: “Yesterday the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a letter to state birth registrars announcing a procedure change allowing a woman to be named as a parent on the Maryland birth certificate of the child born to her same-sex married spouse, without the necessity of a court order. Lambda Legal applauds this advance for Maryland children.”

ACLU: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments today in a case defending the right of transgender people to receive medical care while they are incarcerated. Under Wisconsin law, prison doctors are prohibited from prescribing hormone treatment to transgender inmates. The law is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal.”

Lambda Legal: “Today the Ohio Supreme Court heard arguments in Lambda Legal’s case defending Michele Hobbs, a lesbian mother who was denied access to her child when she and her former partner, the biological mother, ended their relationship.” | In Re S.J.L. and J.K.L

Lambda Legal: “Late yesterday, Lambda Legal filed papers in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit defending a lower court ruling that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Lambda Legal client Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman …

Lambda Legal: “On May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the senior prom, blocking Logan’s entrance because Logan was wearing a dress; at the time, Logan identified as a feminine male. Classmates and friends rallied to Logan’s defense to no avail—even though a female student was allowed to attend dressed in a tuxedo.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal has sent a letter to Governor-Elect Jerry Brown urging him to scrutinize closely the judicial philosophies of those he appoints as state court judges and to add greater diversity to the bench.”

Lambda Legal: “The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will hear oral arguments this Friday, December 17, in a Lambda Legal case that could result in the next major court decision regarding the federal so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ or DOMA.”

Lambda Legal: “The Illinois General Assembly is expected to vote on a civil unions bill during this veto session, and Lambda Legal urges the Illinois House and Senate to provide much needed protections for same-sex couples.”

Virginia Law Weekly: “On Monday, the Law School hosted Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund and Matt McGill of Gibson Dunn for a debate on Proposition 8, California’s recently passed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. A U.S. District Court recently held that Proposition 8 violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The 9th Circuit will hear the case on appeal on Dec. 6.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal yesterday filed a brief in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a lawsuit that could result in the next major court decision regarding the constitutionality of the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ also known as DOMA.”

Golinski v. United States Office of Personnel Management, No. 3:10-cv-0257-JSW (N.D. Cal.)

Los Angeles Times: “Iowa’s rejection of three state supreme court justices who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage underscored the growing electoral vulnerability of state judges as more and more are targeted by special interest groups, legal scholars and jurists said Thursday.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal today filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to leave in place pending appeal the injunction a federal district court judge issued against enforcement of the U.S. military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT) ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, saying that the policy’s impact extends far beyond those in uniform and that continuing it would do irreparable harm to lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal has released a short guide aimed at tax professionals and California’s registered domestic partners explaining the consequences of a significant shift in federal tax policy as they file their tax returns for 2010.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal client Dr. Robert Franke, who was evicted from a Little Rock, Arkansas, assisted living facility because he has HIV, has been invited by the White House to participate this week in a conference on HIV and aging. Dr. Franke, a retired educator and former minister, will attend the meeting with his daughter, Sara Bowling, and Lambda Legal HIV Project Staff Attorney Scott Schoettes. Schoettes will speak on a panel addressing issues likely to affect seniors living with HIV.”

Lambda Legal: “In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District, upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by an antigay group that attempted to strip away the newly enacted domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples and their families.”

Cleveland Taxpayers for the Ohio Constitution v. City of Cleveland, No. 94327 (Ohio App. Sept. 30, 2010)

New York Times: “In addition to the military policy, two laws restricting gay rights — the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the California ban on same-sex marriage — have been declared unconstitutional by federal judges in recent months. The fact that these decisions have come from federal courts signals a shift for activists on gay legal issues. Until recently, the activists’ conventional wisdom held that gay rights cases should work their way through state courts, which were viewed as more accommodating than the federal judiciary.”

WSJ: “The ruling earlier this month by San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional might well be overturned by the Ninth Circuit . . . But for now, it seems it’s providing a bit of inspiration to gays and lesbians in Hawaii, who last month sued Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle after she vetoed legislation approved last year that would have allowed same-sex civil unions. According to this LAT story, backers of the suit hope Judge Walker’s Aug. 4 ruling will become the legal precedent that other courts in the country eventually will follow.”

Lambda Legal: “Today, Lambda Legal announced the settlement of its lawsuit on behalf of a lesbian couple against Countrywide Financial in the Southern District of New York federal court after the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, announced policy changes allowing homeowners to add their domestic partners to their home’s deed without penalty.”

American Constitution Society Convention panel: “On June 18, at the 2010 ACS National Convention, a panel of experts discussed ‘Marriage Equality: An Update and Preview.’ The panel featured: Christopher Hayes, Washington, D.C. Editor, The Nation, Moderator; Mary Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; Brian W. Raum, Senior Counsel, Marriage Litigation Center, Alliance Defense Fund; Therese M. Stewart, Chief Deputy City Attorney, City of San Francisco; Camilla B. Taylor, Senior Staff Attorney, Lambda Legal.”

Watertown Daily Times: “The Justice Department has filed motion in U.S. District Court to participate in the case as an ‘amicus curiae,’ or friend of the court, essentially volunteering to help the court decide whether federal discrimination claims by former student Charles P. Pratt should be upheld. Mr. Pratt, who filed suit in April 2009, alleged he was harassed, called names, physically assaulted and threatened . . . Mr. Pratt claims that district officials were aware of the problems but deliberately refused to help him. He also said any attempts by him to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school were shot down by administrators.”

“The lawsuit, being filed today in Circuit Court, asks the court to step in where the Legislature did not and reverse the effect of Lingle’s veto.”

“The New Jersey Supreme Court issued an order Monday rejecting a recently filed motion in a long-ago-resolved lawsuit that attempted to force New Jersey legislature to redefine marriage.”

“A federal judge is blocking Arizona from implementing a state law that eliminates domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state employees.”

Lambda Legal Press Release: “Today, Lambda Legal joined a coalition of over 30 organizations and leaders from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), immigrants’ rights, civil rights and faith communities to urge Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act and end discrimination against LGBT binational families.” | United American Families Act on Wikipedia

USA Today: “Lawsuits over gay marriage have escalated on the nation’s two coasts, energizing advocates on both sides and bringing the legal battle over same-sex marriage closer to the U.S. Supreme Court . . . Still, resolution of the cases now in lower U.S. courts and any Supreme Court determination on same-sex marriage is far from predictable. ‘I’m still optimistic about the Supreme Court,’ says Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which wants to preserve marriage for heterosexuals . . . ‘Many people do not understand that Proposition 8 is not just about California,’ Gallagher says. ‘This is a national case with national implications.’”

Lambda Legal:  ”Late Friday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Lambda Legal client Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female.”

“The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay-rights group, plan to file a lawsuit in Circuit Court alleging Hawaii has failed to provide equal rights to gays and lesbians short of marriage.”

“U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story ruled Friday that Vandy Beth Glenn’s firing violated her constitutional rights under the Equal Protection Clause.”

Leonard Link: “The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that the state’s anti-marriage constitutional amendment . . . does not violate the ‘single subject’ rule. Although this was a private voter lawsuit rather than an action instigated by LGBT public interest groups, the case attracted organization amicus briefs on both sides of the issue. ACLU and Lambda Legal and the League of Women Voters supported McConkey’s appeal, while the Wisconsin Family Council (represented by Alliance Defense Fund), and an organization calling itself ‘Community Leaders Dedicated to Children Raised by Married Mothers and Fathers,’ filed briefs defending the amendment.”

Lambda Legal: “Lambda Legal today presented oral arguments in U.S. District Court in Phoenix to block a law stripping domestic partner benefits from gay and lesbian state employees. Arizona lawmakers included a provision eliminating domestic partner health benefits for gay state employees as part of a last-minute budget deal signed by Governor Jan Brewer last September, while retaining spousal health benefits for heterosexual workers . . . ”

Insurance News: “The study, released today in the online edition of the leading journal Health Affairs, found that partnered lesbians are only 28 percent as likely as married heterosexual couples to receive healthcare coverage for a partner through an employer. Gay men are 42 percent as likely. The study also found that these disparities are not remedied by other insurance options.” | Lambda Legal Press Release | Full Study: The Effects Of Unequal Access to Health Insurance for Same-Sex Couples in California

Washington Blade (“lgbtq community news source”): “In a statement, Jim Campbell, an attorney for Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal firm working on the case, said defendants would emphasize arguments they made throughout the trial. ‘The team of attorneys defending Proposition 8 will highlight all the reasons why Proposition 8 is constitutional,’ he said. ‘In doing so, they will emphasize the reasons why Proposition 8 is not only rational, but also why preserving marriage as one man and one woman is good social policy.’”

Iowa Examiner: “The State of Iowa has no right to prevent a child, born in wedlock, from having the benefit of both parents being named on her birth certificate. That’s the crux of a lawsuit filed in Polk County District Court by a Des Moines couple on behalf of their infant daughter . . . ”

The Examiner: “The brief contends that denying marriage to same-sex couples inflicts psychological harm on children being raised by same-sex couples as well as on gay and lesbian youth. The brief was filed in support of the motion filed by Lambda Legal in March asking the New Jersey Supreme Court to grant same-sex couples the right to marry.”

365Gay.com: “Gay legal activists are applauding President Obama’s second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court: Solicitor General Elena Kagan. But it could hardly be described as a standing ovation . . . Kagan clerked for one of the Supreme Court’s staunchest liberals, Thurgood Marshall, and was a research assistant for one of the greatest legal defenders of gay civil rights, Laurence Tribe . . . Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights called Kagan “well-qualified” . . .”

Philly.com: “Burlington County school board voted Tuesday night to pull a book depicting teenage homosexuality from its high school library shelves after protests from a local conservative group.”

Times Record News (AP): “[T]he federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, nor do the vast majority of states, including Pennsylvania. Even with a valid out-of-state marriage license, gay and lesbian couples in those states face uncertainty, extra legal bills and inevitable rebuffs that straight couples avoid . . . ‘The government cannot issue a divorce for a marriage it doesn’t recognize,’ said ADF senior legal counsel [Austin Nimocks].”

“The bill now goes to Gov. Linda Lingle, . . . a Republican, has not said whether she would sign, veto or allow the bill to become law without her signature . . . ”

The Tennessean: “This month, [Cole] Goforth called the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, becoming one of a growing number of openly gay high school students demanding equal treatment. Complaints from these students and their supporters are raising legal questions and prompting lawsuits in Middle Tennessee and other parts of the South.”

Lambda Legal: “Now, lesbian women and non-gay women who have the same medical condition resulting in infertility will have the same insurance coverage. Prior to this recent clarification, insurance coverage was often denied unless a woman could prove that she had unprotected heterosexual sex for a year – effectively barring coverage for lesbian women.”

Lambda Legal: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and Lambda Legal announced today that they have received assurances from officials at Greenbrier High School that the school will stop censoring a student from wearing shirts expressing pro-gay messages. The school will also provide training on its anti-bullying policy to staff and students to ensure that it is clear that harassment of any student, regardless of sexual orientation, is not acceptable . . . ”

Pew Forum (RNS): “The case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, pits a campus chapter of a Christian legal group against the Hastings College of the Law and its 20-year-old nondiscrimination policy. ‘Our main argument is that Christian student groups shouldn’t be forced to deny their faith in order to receive equal treatment on campus,’ said [Gregory Baylor], senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is helping represent the CLS chapter before the high court.”

James Ahearn writes at NorthJersey.com: “Lambda Legal, a gay-rights advocacy organization, contends that civil unions are a failed legislative experiment, that only marriage will provide true equality and that the Senate ignored evidence to the contrary. What evidence? Emotional, unverified testimony by gay and lesbian couples that they had been denied rights to which they were entitled . . . ”

Bay Windows (“GLBT Newspaper”): “In Christian Legal v. Martinez, a Christian law students’ group contests a decision by the University of California’s Hastings College of Law, headed currently by acting chancellor Leo Martinez. The case also includes a gay student group, Outlaw, at the same school as a party to the defense . . . ‘Like every other student group on Hastings’ campus, it too has a choice,’ say GLAD and Lambda. ‘It can adhere to Hastings’ general nondiscrimination policy or forego school funding.’ The federal district court in San Francisco and the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with that logic and ruled for the university and Outlaw. Christian Legal, with the aid of the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund, has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in agreeing to hear that appeal, at least four justices had to indicate a willingness to consider their arguments.”