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Four adult children of same-sex parents have submitted amicus curiae briefs in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals asking that it oppose the legalization of same-sex “marriage.” The Court, in New Orleans, La., heard arguments on Jan. 9 as it considers whether to uphold traditional marriage—defined as being between one man and one woman—in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. B.N. Klein, Robert Oscar Lopez, Dawn Stefanowicz, and Katy Faust all grew up with homosexual parents. All four argued that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would harm children by depriving them of a mother or father. …

In a recent speech, Senator Rand Paul urged an audience of conservatives to embrace judicial activism. According to Paul, judicial activism is a good thing because it advances liberty and furthers conservative goals. Legislatures do “bad things,” Paul argues, and judicial activism is helpful to stop that: Judicial activism can overturn liberal laws such as Obamacare and the employment laws at issue in Lochner v. New York. According to Senator Paul, there is “a role for the Supreme Court to mete out justice.” As a result, he considers himself a judicial activist in debates over Locher, the New Deal in...

A judge in South Dakota ruled the state constitution's definition of marriage is unconstitutional because it does not allow same-sex couples to marry. In a decision rendered Monday, district court judge Karen E. Schreier ruled the South Dakota's Amendment C unconstitutional, but put a stay on her decision pending appeal. Schreier drew a parallel to the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which declared interracial marriage bans unlawful. "In Loving, the Supreme Court addressed a traditionally accepted definition of marriage that prohibited Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving from marrying," wrote Schreier. "Plaintiffs have a fundamental right to marry. South Dakota...

The owner of a Richland flower shop being sued over her refusal to provide services for a same-sex wedding can face claims in her personal capacity, a Benton County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. Barronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers are being sued by the state Attorney General’s office and a same-sex couple. Stutzman, a Christian, declined to provide services for the couple’s wedding because of her religious beliefs. Her attorneys argued the claims against her personally should be dropped, describing them as unprecedented and unjust. Attorneys for the state and the couple argued Stutzman can be held personally liable...

Same-Sex Marriage Advocates Have Sights Set On US Supreme Court In 2015 Highest court to decide this week if it will take up marriage appeals 36 states now recognize same-sex marriages after landmark year Amanda Holpuch 6 January 2015 Last year saw same-sex marriage bans fall at a pace nearly unheard of for any social movement in American history, but advocates on all sides of the issue are hoping 2015 will bring a definitive legal decision from the US supreme court on whether same-sex marriage should be the uncontested law of the land. On Monday, Florida became the 36th US...

Miami-Dade County will become the first place in Florida to allow same-sex couples to marry on Monday, 13 hours before a gay-marriage ban that has been ruled unconstitutional is lifted in the rest of the state.

Florida's ban on marriages between same-sex couples is headed for a midnight end, with wedding vows planned around the state. A stay expires late Monday in a federal judge's ruling striking down the ban enacted in 2008 by voters. Several court clerks are planning to begin issuing....

A federal judge says that Florida’s county court clerks have a legal duty to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but he has stopped short of ordering them to do so. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a ruling Thursday in Tallahassee federal court responding to requests to clarify his previous order that Florida’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. He stayed that order, but the stay is scheduled to expire at the end of the day Monday. The association representing county clerks said the ruling applies only to Washington County, where a lawsuit filed by two men became a key...

December 19, 2014 JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS Recent Judicial Confirmations Put Obama Ahead of Predecessors This week, the Senate confirmed a dozen judicial nominees before the end of the “lame duck” session, reports Jennifer Bendery at The Huffington Post. “That puts Obama at a whopping 89 district court and circuit court confirmations for the year, and means he'll wrap up his sixth year in office with a grand total of 305 district court and circuit court confirmations -- a tally that puts him well beyond where his predecessors were by this point in their presidencies.” Many of these new judges will add...

A Republican justice on the Ohio Supreme Court says the legal obstacles facing his lesbian daughter, her partner and their two children have made him view the state’s protections for same-sex couples and their families as inadequate. The comments by Justice Paul Pfeifer come as the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could settle the issue across the nation once and for all. He said his daughter, Lisa, has a partner and two children, ages 9 and 5, whom he and his wife consider grandchildren. But under Ohio law, his...

A judge overturned Missouri’s ban on gay marriage Wednesday, and St. Louis immediately began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The state’s ban violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and due process clause, St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex M. Burlison wrote in his ruling. “Any same-sex couple that satisfies all the requirements for marriage under Missouri law, other than being of different sexes, is legally entitled to a marriage license,” he wrote. ... St. Louis ended up issuing marriage licenses to four same-sex couples Wednesday afternoon, and more are expected in the days to come, said Jennifer Florida, St....

Exclusive: Matt Barber warns, 'The courts are tossing around spiritual nitroglycerin' It’s called Pandora’s Box. And the Supreme Court just opened it. Did you actually think the debate over “gay marriage” was about marriage? Have you really come to believe that this cultural kerfuffle has anything to do with “civil rights” or “equality”? Have you bought into the popular premise that this is a legitimate discussion on federalism – that it’s a reasonable disagreement over whether the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause requires that newfangled “gay marriage,” something rooted in same-sex sodomy, a deviant and disease-prone behavior our Constitution’s framers...

<p>CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina court has issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple despite the state's constitutional ban against the practice and the attorney general's pledge to defend it.</p>

Conservative officials in some of the six states where Supreme Court action this week likely cleared the way for same-sex weddings say they won’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples until their hands are forced. Now, gay rights advocates are preparing to do just that. James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, called the court’s action a “watershed moment for the entire country,” and other gay rights activists described plans Tuesday to challenge remaining bans. …

he Supreme Court has turned away appeals from five states seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages, paving the way for an immediate expansion of gay and lesbian unions. The justices on Monday did not comment in rejecting appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The court's order immediately ends delays on marriage in those states. Couples in six other states should be able to get married in short order. That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia. But the justices have left unresolved for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Abortion-rights lawyers are predicting "a showdown" at the U.S. Supreme Court after federal appellate judges allowed full implementation of a law that has closed more than 80 percent of Texas' abortion clinics. As of Friday, abortion services for many Texas women required a round trip of more than 200 miles - or a border-crossing into Mexico or New Mexico. Operators of some of the affected clinics and their lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Rights vowed to appeal Thursday's decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that allows Texas to...

Correction: This post initially stated that Judge Tonya Parker was “no longer” marrying straight couples. Judge Parker has never performed such marriage ceremonies. This version has been corrected. Catholic priests have refused to marry same-sex couples for years. Judge Tonya Parker (Dallas County) Now, a Texas judge has an answer to that, saying she will not marry straight couples until gay marriage is legal in the state. Judge Tonya Parker of Dallas County told the Dallas Voice that she respectfully tells couples why she can’t conduct their marriage ceremony: “I'm sorry. I don't perform marriage ceremonies because we are in...

A Michigan court ruled that the state branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union does not have to pay back tens of millions of dollars in dues taken from home health care workers who were forced into unionization. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the SEIU Healthcare Michigan does not have to pay back more than $34 million in dues collected from over 40,000 home health care workers. Many were forced into the union under state requirements that they join because they were taking care of sick family members at home.

While political partisanship flourishes in the halls of Congress, it has no place in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief justice said Friday in remarks to Nebraska law students. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said he worries that the partisan rancor of the age has skewed the public understanding of the court’s role in government. During a 55-­minute talk at the University of Nebraska College of Law, he stressed that the rule of law, rather than politics, drives the court’s decisions. “We are not Democrats and Republicans in how we go about it,” he told an audience...

The Kansas Supreme Court sided Thursday with Democrats attempting to remove their candidate from the ballot in Kansas’s razor-tight Senate race, a blow to incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts’ reelection prospects. The withdrawal of the Democratic nominee in the race, Chad Taylor, clears a path for independent Greg Orman to challenge Roberts one-on-one. Polls show Orman leading in the contest in a head-to-head matchup. Although Taylor announced earlier this month that he was ending his campaign, Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach had ruled that Taylor’s name must remain on the ballot because his withdrawal failed to meet the precise...