Lisa Keen
By Lisa Keen on July 20, 2010
Both “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and same-sex marriage continued to be a prominent focus of the confirmation proceedings for Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, as the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday recommended the confirmation.
Posted in Federal Courts, Issues, Law, News, Nominees, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on July 14, 2010
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is not on the agenda for Senate floor action for the next few weeks, prior to the August 9 recess. The Senate will take up work on as many as nine matters during the next month, but none of those are ENDA.
Posted in Congress, ENDA, Issues, National Politics, News, Politics
By Lisa Keen on July 14, 2010
While most people who are concerned about eliminating the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law are focused on a bill in Congress and a survey by the Pentagon, there is important action elsewhere—in a federal district court in Riverside, California.
Posted in Don't Ask Don't Tell, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, News
By Lisa Keen on July 10, 2010
Posted in Podcast
By Lisa Keen on July 8, 2010
In an enormous victory for same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Boston Thursday, July 8, ruled—in two separate lawsuits—that a critical part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.
Posted in Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on July 8, 2010
In an enormous victory for same-sex marriage, a federal judge in Boston today ruled, in two separate cases, that a critical part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on July 5, 2010
Posted in Podcast
By Lisa Keen on July 1, 2010
The purpose of the small gathering at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington was two-fold: first, to give LGBT media a “snapshot” of what the Obama administration has done, and plans to do, on LGBT issues. And, second, nine LGBT reporters and political bloggers would get to ask a question.
Posted in News, Politics, White House
By Lisa Keen on June 30, 2010
Never before in the history of Supreme Court confirmation hearings have gay issues played such a prominent role.
Posted in Don't Ask Don't Tell, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, News, Nominees, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 29, 2010
One message Republicans tried to hammer away at this week, in an effort to derail Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, must have struck many LGBT viewers of her confirmation hearing as deeply ironic.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, News, Nominees, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 29, 2010
Except that she was wearing a bright blue jacket and sitting in the middle of the Senate hearing room, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was, in one sense, invisible on the first day of her confirmation.
The members of the Senate Judiciary Committee spent much of their time Monday singing the praises of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVa.) who died Sunday night, and much of the remaining time slinging partisan barbs at one another.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on June 28, 2010
For the second time in a week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion that delivered a small, indirect, and perhaps unfinished victory to policies that have benefited the LGBT community.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 27, 2010
Posted in Podcast
By Lisa Keen on June 24, 2010
In a ruling hailed by gay activists, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law that requires public disclosure of the names of people who signed a petition to put an anti-gay referendum on the ballot in Washington State. But litigation may not yet be finished.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 24, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a law that requires public disclosure of the names of people who signed a petition to put an anti-gay referendum on the ballot in Washington State.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 22, 2010
It was not exactly the same rousing, sustained cheer of last year that greeted President Obama as he entered the East Room Tuesday evening for a reception in honor of LGBT Pride month. There was an awkward quiet as he shook some hands near the stage before making his remarks, and several moments of silence when normally one might have expected the requisite applause.
But the several hundred people attending the White House LGBT Pride Month Reception were enthusiastic in their reception of the president.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on June 22, 2010
It’s been clear since Elena Kagan was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court that her confirmation hearing would be unusually focused on things gay.
First, there were the complaints that she barred military recruiters from Harvard Law School while she was dean. Then, came rumors that she herself is gay. And finally, there has been a generalized fear expressed by right-wing groups that she’s liberal enough to reverse the Defense of Marriage Act.
But there’s surprisingly little support for any of these assumptions in the thousands of emails, memoranda, and other documents submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee from the archives of the Clinton White House.
Posted in A Closer Look
By Lisa Keen on June 20, 2010
Posted in Podcast
By Lisa Keen on June 16, 2010
There were so many people trying to get in to watch the final day of the landmark trial challenging California’s same-sex marriage ban, the court staff had to set up an additional overflow room for observers.
Posted in Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
By Lisa Keen on June 16, 2010
Conservative attorney Ted Olson relied heavily this morning on comparisons between the current ban on same-sex marriage and the ban that existed in the 1960’s on interracial marriage.
Posted in Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships, News
Movement to ban gay adoption: sacrificing the well-being of children