Deborah Louise Cook is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,based in Akron,Ohio. She served as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1995 to 2003.
2006 Virginia Question 1,the Marshall-Newman Amendment is an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that defines marriage as solely between one man and one woman and bans recognition of any legal status "approximat[ing] the design,qualities,significance,or effects of marriage". The amendment was ratified by 57% of the voters on November 7,2006. It became part of the state Constitution as Section 15-A of Article 1. In 2014,the amendment was ruled unconstitutional in Bostic v. Schaefer.
Barbara Brandriff Crabb is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Callie Virginia Granade is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. The first female federal prosecutor in Mobile,Granade became the first woman in Alabama to be named a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers,and the first female federal district judge in her district.
The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) was a nonprofit organization active in the United States from 2009 through 2015. The organization was established to support the plaintiffs in Hollingsworth v. Perry,a federal lawsuit challenging California's Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. AFER retained former United States Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and David Boies to lead the legal team representing the plaintiffs challenging Proposition 8.
Hollingsworth v. Perry was a series of United States federal court cases that re-legalized same-sex marriage in the state of California. The case began in 2009 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,which found that banning same-sex marriage violates equal protection under the law. This decision overturned California ballot initiative Proposition 8,which had banned same-sex marriage. After the State of California refused to defend Proposition 8,the official sponsors of Proposition 8 intervened and appealed to the Supreme Court. The case was litigated during the governorships of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown,and was thus known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger and Perry v. Brown,respectively. As Hollingsworth v. Perry,it eventually reached the United States Supreme Court,which held that,in line with prior precedent,the official sponsors of a ballot initiative measure did not have Article III standing to appeal an adverse federal court ruling when the state refused to do so.
Robert James Shelby is an American attorney and judge serving as the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah.
Wilhelmina Marie Wright is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. She is the only jurist in Minnesota's history to be state district court judge,appellate court judge and state supreme court justice. She was formerly an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court,a judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals,and a judge of the Minnesota District Court,Second Judicial District.
This article contains a timeline of significant events regarding same-sex marriage in the United States. On June 26,2015,the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively ended restrictions on same-sex marriage in the United States.
DeBoer v. Snyder is a lawsuit that was filed by April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse on January 23,2012,in federal district court,challenging Michigan's ban on adoption by same-sex couples so they can jointly adopt their children. In August 2012,Judge Bernard A. Friedman invited the couple to amend their suit to challenge the state's ban on same-sex marriage,"the underlying issue". Following a hearing on October 16,2013,Friedman scheduled a trial that ran from February 25 to March 7,2014. On March 21,Judge Friedman issued his ruling overturning the ban. On March 22,the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit placed a temporary hold on Judge Friedman's ruling. The appeal was argued on August 6. On November 6,the Sixth Circuit reversed Judge Friedman and upheld Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 2014.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Virginia since October 6,2014,following the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in Bostic v. Schaefer. Same-sex marriages subsequently began at 1:00 p.m. on October 6 after the Fourth Circuit issued its mandate,and since then Virginia has performed legal marriages of same-sex couples and recognized out-of-state same-sex marriages. Previously,the state had passed a statute prohibiting same-sex marriage in 1975,and further restrictions were added in 1997 and 2004,which made "void and unenforceable" any arrangements between same-sex couples bestowing the "privileges or obligations of marriage". Voters approved an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia reinforcing the existing laws in 2006. On January 14,2014,a U.S. district court judge ruled in Bostic that Virginia's statutory and constitutional ban on the state recognition of same-sex marriages were unconstitutional,a decision upheld by the Fourth Circuit on July 28,2014.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Arkansas since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26,2015,striking down same-sex marriage bans nationwide. Prior to this,same-sex marriage in Arkansas was briefly legal for a period beginning on May 9,2014,as a result of a ruling by Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Chris Piazza striking down the state's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage as violating the U.S. Constitution. Approximately 541 same-sex couples received marriage licenses in several counties before the Arkansas Supreme Court stayed his ruling pending appeal on May 16,2014.
Whitewood v. Wolf is the federal lawsuit that successfully challenged the Pennsylvania Marriage Laws,as amended in 1996 to ban same-sex marriage. The district court's decision in May 2014 held that the Marriage Laws violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. Same-sex couples immediately sought and received marriage licenses and the decision was not appealed. One county clerk sought repeatedly without success to intervene to defend the law.
The 2006 Virginia State Elections took place on Election Day,November 7,2006,the same day as the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate elections in the state. The only statewide elections on the ballot were three constitutional referendums to amend the Virginia State Constitution. Because Virginia state elections are held on off-years,no statewide officers or state legislative elections were held. All referendums were referred to the voters by the Virginia General Assembly.
Wolf v. Walker is a federal lawsuit filed in February 2014 that challenged Wisconsin's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples,its refusal to recognize same-sex marriages established in other jurisdictions,and related statutes. In June 2014,Judge Barbara Crabb of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled for the plaintiffs. In the week before she stayed her decision,county clerks in 60 of the state's 72 counties issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples and some performed marriage ceremonies for them. The state appealed her decision to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals,which affirmed her opinion in a unanimous decision on September 4. The state requested a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court,which was denied on October 6. Same-sex marriages resumed after the Seventh Circuit issued its mandate the next day.
Bostic v. Schaefer is a lawsuit filed in federal court in July 2013 that challenged Virginia's refusal to sanction same-sex marriages. The plaintiffs won in U.S. district court in February 2014,and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in July 2014. On August 20,2014,the U.S. Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the Fourth Circuit's ruling pending the outcome of further litigation. State officials refused to defend the state's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage.
In the United States,the history of same-sex marriage dates from the early 1940s,when the first lawsuits seeking legal recognition of same-sex relationships brought the question of civil marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples to public attention though they proved unsuccessful. However marriage wasn't a request for the LGBTQ movement until the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington (1987). The subject became increasingly prominent in U.S. politics following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision in Baehr v. Miike that suggested the possibility that the state's prohibition might be unconstitutional. That decision was met by actions at both the federal and state level to restrict marriage to male-female couples,notably the enactment at the federal level of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Family Foundation of Virginia is a socially conservative and Christian fundamentalist lobbying organization headquartered in the US city of Richmond,Virginia. It was focused originally on opposition to sex education. It has expanded to opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment,nondiscrimination policies,and same-sex marriage. The organization supports legal conversion therapy for minors and increased legal restriction on abortion.
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