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.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises approximately the Eastern half of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio maintains appellate jurisdiction for the district.
Jennifer Walker Elrod is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She previously served as a state court judge on the 190th District Court of Texas from 2002 to 2007.
Vaughn Richard Walker, Judge Vaughn R Walker, is an American lawyer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1989 to 2011. Walker presided over the original trial in Hollingsworth v. Perry, where he found California's Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional.
David Louis Bunning is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Bunning is the son of former Republican Senator Jim Bunning, a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher who represented Kentucky in the United States Senate from 1999 to 2011.
Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Gregory Frederick Van Tatenhove, also known as Greg Van Tatenhove, is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was a legislative aide of Senator Mitch McConnell, a law clerk for Judge Eugene Edward Siler Jr., United States attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky (2001–05), and on the recommendation of Senators Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell he was nominated to fill a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Daniel Cameron was a law clerk for Van Tatenhove, who later swore him in as Kentucky Attorney General.
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.
Timothy Seymour Black is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Arenda Lauretta Wright Allen is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. She formerly worked as an Assistant United States Attorney and a Federal Public Defender in Norfolk, Virginia.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Kentucky still face some legal challenges not experienced by other people. Same-sex sexual activity in Kentucky has been legally permitted since 1992, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy statute for same-sex couples. Same-sex marriage is legal in Kentucky under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The decision, which struck down Kentucky's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriages and all other same-sex marriage bans elsewhere in the country, was handed down on June 26, 2015.
The lead cases on same-sex marriage in Kentucky are Bourke v. Beshear, and its companion case Love v. Beshear. In Bourke, a U.S. district court found that the Equal Protection Clause requires Kentucky to recognize valid same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. In Love, the same court found that this same clause renders Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Both decisions were stayed and consolidated upon appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in both cases on August 6, 2014. On November 6, the Sixth Circuit upheld Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015. The decision, which struck down Kentucky's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriages, was handed down on June 26, 2015, and Governor Steve Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway announced almost immediately that the court's order would be implemented.
John Gilpin Heyburn II was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Heyburn served as the Chief Judge of the Court between 2001 and 2008.
Kimberly Jean Davis is an American former county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, who gained international attention in August 2015 when she defied a U.S. federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Timothy Neil Philpot is an American lawyer, author and judge. He was elected to serve as a family court circuit judge in Fayette County, Kentucky in 2004, and again in 2006 and 2014, in the latter case with a term expiring in January 2023. He previously served as a Republican member of the Kentucky Senate from 1993 to 1998 and as the president of Christian Business Men's Connection from 1996 to 2003. As a judge, Philpot has been criticized for making controversial statements about LGBT people but also has been defended as not allowing his social views to influence his judicial decisions. Philpot is an author of a semi-autobiographical novel drawing on cases he has heard and his experiences as a judge, explored from his socially conservative Methodist perspective.
Claria Denise Horn Boom is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. She is a member of the United States Sentencing Commission.
Robert Earl Wier is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Mary Margaret Rowland is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and a former United States Magistrate Judge for the same court.
