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.
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.
Henry Coke Morgan Jr. was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Rebecca Beach Smith is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and a civic leader. Among her many decisions is the 2011 ruling that decided the title to and restrictions upon artifacts salvaged from the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
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.
Wilhelmina Marie Wright is a 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.
Linda Vivienne Parker is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Mary Hannah Lauck is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and former United States magistrate judge of the same court.
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.
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.
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.
Kelley Brisbon Hodge is an American attorney and politician who is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She served as the 25th District Attorney of Philadelphia. She is a member of the Democratic Party. After being elected on July 20,2017,by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Board of Judges,Hodge was sworn in on July 24,2017,making her the first African American woman to serve as district attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
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.
Candace Rae Jackson-Akiwumi is an American attorney who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since July 2021. She was previously a staff attorney at the federal defender program in the Northern District of Illinois from 2010 to 2020 and a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington,D.C.,from 2020 to 2021.
Arianna Julia Freeman is an American lawyer from Pennsylvania who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Elizabeth Wilson Hanes is an American lawyer from Virginia who serves as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. She previously served as a United States magistrate judge of the same court.
Kai Niambi Scott is an American attorney who is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She previously served as a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas from 2015 to 2023.
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