By Lisa Keen on January 25, 2012
The battle lines between the constitutional right to free exercise of religion and laws prohibiting discrimination are seeing some action at the U.S. Supreme Court these days.
Posted in News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on October 18, 2011
The ACLU called it “one of the most important religious liberty cases in years” and said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the matter would determine whether religious organizations have “the right to discriminate based on non-religious grounds.”
Posted in News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on October 11, 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday (October 11) refused to hear a case that challenged a sort of “back door discrimination” against a gay couple by a Louisiana state official.
Posted in Adoption, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on July 14, 2011
Lambda Legal Defense is taking its fight for same-sex families to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, Adar v. Darlene Smith, involves a gay male couple–Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith–who sought an amended birth certificate for the boy they adopted in the state of New York.
Posted in Adoption, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on March 2, 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an anti-gay protester’s demonstrations in close proximity to a private funeral service are protected by the First Amendment.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on January 18, 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday refused to hear the appeal of a group of clergy in Washington, D.C., who want to put the city’s new marriage equality law on the ballot.
Posted in Issues, Law, Marriage/Relationships, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on November 12, 2010
In a move that did not catch anyone by surprise, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied a request from attorneys for Log Cabin Republicans to vacate an order that enabled the military to continue enforcing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Posted in Don't Ask Don't Tell, Federal Courts, Issues, Lawsuits, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on October 21, 2010
A lawsuit over a referendum on same-sex marriage has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. And it’s not Proposition 8.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on October 7, 2010
Fred Phelps’ followers say their hate-filled messages constitute a contribution to public discourse. But, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, attorney Sean Summers argued that these messages, when conveyed outside the funeral of a fallen soldier, inflict an injury for which the group should be made liable.
Posted in Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on October 4, 2010
There are some important First Amendment cases coming before the U.S. Supreme Court in the session that begins today. The most important case for the LGBT community at the moment is Snyder v. Phelps, which the court will hear on Wednesday, October 6.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on September 14, 2010
At first glance, it might draw a yawn: Elena Kagan, the U.S. Supreme Court’s newest member, has recused herself from some upcoming cases. But ruminate for a few minutes over this list of cases that could be before the court within a few years.
Posted in A closer look, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Issues, Law, Marriage/Relationships, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on August 4, 2010
Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, said he would oppose Elena Kagan’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court because she has “a history of ignoring the law when it conflicts with the gay rights agenda.”
Posted in Federal Courts, Issues, Law, News, Nominees, U.S. Supreme Court
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 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 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 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’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, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Federal Courts, Issues, Law, Marriage/Relationships, News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on May 13, 2010
The number of results from a Google search of “Elena Kagan” plus the word “gay” more than doubled from 722,000 on Monday, when President Obama nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court, to 1,950,000 on Tuesday night, when Politico.com reported two friends said she is not gay.
Posted in Federal Courts, Law, News, U.S. Supreme Court
Children with LGB parents: youthful perspectives on marriage
Federal appeals panel rules Prop 8 videos stay under seal
GOP gays and Florida back Romney
New HUD rule called ‘truly historic’