Article written by Michele M. Jochner and Shannon R. Burke Waiting until the final day of its 2012-2013 Term, the United States Supreme Court issued two long-awaited decisions regarding same-sex marriage. Both cases, decided by close 5-4 margins, were viewed as victories for the proponents of marriage equality. In United States v. Windsor, the Court […]
As a follow up to my last blog post, on Friday December 7, 2012, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear, not one, but two gay marriage cases. The first is Windsor v. United States 699 F.3d 169 (2012), which comes out of an October 2012 ruling from the Second Circuit Court […]
There are presently 10 pending appeals potentially before the Supreme Court addressing the issue of same sex marriage. 8 of the 10 appeals directly challenge the controversial Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on equal protection grounds. DOMA has already been declared unconstitutional by the 1st and 2nd Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as by […]
On May 31, 2012, a federal appeals court in Boston (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit) unanimously ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) was unconstitutional, thereby paving the way for this controversial issue to be decided by the United States Supreme Court. Less than one week later, on June 6, 2012, […]
In June 1958, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, married Richard Loving, a white man. Although the newlyweds were residents of Virginia, they married in the District of Columbia because Virginia had a criminal statute that prohibited interracial marriages between a white person and a person of color in addition to a statutory provision that rendered […]