The NCAA has thrown its considerable heft behind efforts to get Indiana lawmakers to add "LGBT protections" into state law, announcing Wednesday that it joined a coalition of businesses that is pushing for the change. "The NCAA national office in Indianapolis supports making Indiana a welcoming and inclusive place for people to work, live and enjoy," Bernard Franklin, NCAA chief inclusion officer, said in a statement.
On Monday, December 14, 2015, the Board of Sullivan County Commissioners passed this resolution, declaring the SCOTUS ruling to be unconstitutional, and calling upon the "Tennessee General Assembly and Governor to keep their oaths to uphold the Tennessee Constitution and the Constitution of the United States" by refusing to accept the Obergefell ruling and by "continuing to uphold the Tennessee State Constitution."
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. — The Sullivan County Commission decided to weigh in Monday on the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision by passing a resolution in opposition to it. The action came after 12 county residents appeared before the commission during its regular meeting and spoke in favor of traditional marriage. Twenty of the 24 commissioners voted in favor of the resolution.
On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio told "Meet the Press" that he would not try to counteract Obergefell v. Hodges with a constitutional amendment. "As I've said, that would be conceding that the current Constitution is somehow wrong and needs to be fixed," he said. "I don't think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage. That belongs at the state and local level."
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday blocked an AL Supreme Court ruling that refused to recognize a woman's "parental rights" over three children she adopted with her female partner (the mother). A court in Georgia granted the adoption in 2007, but the ruling issued by the AL Supreme Court said the Georgia court overstepped it's jurisdiction. The ruling will remain on hold until SCOTUS decides whether to hear the case.
Last week, a federal judge ruled against recognizing a Montana man as being married to two women. U.S. magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby ruled that Nathan Collier cannot file a lawsuit until he and his wife Victoria, and Christine, who has lived with Collier long enough to qualify as his common-law wife, show how the law harms them, or that they have been threatened with prosecution.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a lower court order that purported to allow birth certificates statewide to list two men or two women as the "parents" of a child. It let stand the certificates obtained by three female-female couples who had challenged the Arkansas Health Department Vital Statistics Bureau's refusal to identify the three couples as the adoptive or biological "parents" of children in their custody.
The Indiana Family Institute and American Family Association of Indiana, two conservative lobbying groups, filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging local nondiscrimination ordinances in Indianapolis and Carmel that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The lawsuit also contends that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act “fix” — passed earlier this year by state legislators — is unconstitutional.
Oral arguments will be heard next month in the appeal filed by the 16-year-old female student who is suing Gloucester County schools over its restroom use policy. The appeal – filed in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond by Gavin Grimm, a junior at Gloucester High School — asks a federal court to reverse the recent denial of an injunction that would have allowed her to use the boys' restroom at the start of the school year.
A Puerto Rico court has for the first time allowed a same-sex couple to adopt a child. Wednesday's ruling involves a woman whose longtime partner gave birth to a girl through artificial insemination. The woman had been fighting to adopt the girl for two years. Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda calls it a historic decision and says it represents a new civil rights achievement.
A school board in Lancaster, New York has delayed a vote on allowing students to use restrooms of the opposite gender. The debate over the restrooms and other single-sex facilities dominated a meeting on Monday night. While officials defended the change, many voices stood against it. The assistant superintendent for curriculum argued in favor of the change, noting that Lancaster is not the first school district to enact such a policy.
GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio has pledged to reverse President Barack Obama’s 2014 gender ideology executive order should he be elected president. Speaking with CBN News, Rubio said he would overturn Obama’s moves to force acceptance of transgender bathroom usage. "The executive orders would be to reverse the executive orders the president has made on things like gender equality in restrooms," he stated.
Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he would "absolutely decline" to uphold the Supreme Court's decision purporting to redefine marriage – because "it's a matter of saving our republic." "I would absolutely decline," Huckabee said in an interview. "In fact, I would make sure I had an Attorney General who led the Justice Department who would protect, in every way, the rights of those citizens who joined in disagreeing."
A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges North Carolina's law allowing magistrates to refuse to perform same-sex "marriages" based on their religious beliefs, arguing that it violates equality and church-state provisions in the U.S. Constitution. In North Carolina, any official's decision to opt out of performing weddings or issuing licenses applies to both legitimate marriages and same-sex unions — for at least six months.
Governors Paul LePage of Maine and Pat McCrory of North Carolina, along with the attorneys general of South Carolina, Arizona, Mississippi, and West Virginia, have filed a “friend of the court” brief against letting boys use girls’ toilets, showers, locker rooms, and private facilities. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed the brief on behalf of the six state leaders in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Kentucky Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday in the case of a woman (known as A.H.) who is claiming parental rights over her former female partner's child. The child was conceived via donated sperm. The women ended their same-sex relationship in 2011, and the biological mother (known as M.L.) cut off contact with A.H. and married a man, who is trying to adopt the child. A.H. is trying to block the adoption.
Just days after reaching an agreement to allow a male student to use the female-designated locker rooms, a Illinois School District 211 again heard heated appeals on both sides of the issue but declined late Monday to rescind the settlement. After receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the board declined to take another vote on the matter late Monday, thereby keeping the settlement in place.
On Saturday, presidential candidate Ben Carson told Veterans at an event in Waterloo, Iowa that he disagreed with President Obama’s policy of “using our military as a laboratory for social experimentation.” Speaking at a Concerned Veterans for America town hall, Carson criticized Obama’s policies, including the expectation of open service by transgender service members, saying that “we have too many important things to do.”
A resolution to oppose the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling is on the meeting agenda for Franklin County Commissioners today, although Commissioner Chuck Stines has said that he plans to withdraw the proposal. "Monday night it’ll come up and on the agenda it will say it’s been withdrawn," Stines said. "It has no legal binding authority at this point, and to protect the county, we’re withdrawing it."
A judge has approved attorney fees that are significantly lower than requested in a lawsuit that challenged Arkansas' marriage amendment. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on Friday awarded attorney Cheryl Maples $1,590 and attorney Jack Wagoner and attorneys in his law firm a total of $18,360. Maples requested $15,900 plus $511.47 in costs. Wagoner asked for $49,754.
School officials in a suburban Chicago district said Friday they may back out of an agreement made with the U.S. Department of Education to allow a male student to use the girls' locker room, claiming that a federal official misrepresented the details of the agreement. Dispute exists over who the agreement applies to—the entire district, or just the student in question—and whether the student must use special privacy curtains.
Hours after a suburban Chicago school district approved a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows a male student to use the girls' locker room, district and federal officials were at odds over what the agreement meant. According to the district, the agreement only applies to the student in question. According to the Department of Education, the agreement applies to all of the district's students.
The suburban Chicago school district sued by the Obama administration for refusing a teen boy unconditional access to its girls’ locker rooms and shower facilities is reaching the end of it's 30-day time limit to comply. With the school’s federal funding at risk, along with possible litigation, Township High School District 211 in Palatine, IL will hold an emergency board meeting tonight to consider coming to agreement with the administration.
On Wednesday, Rep. Tom Hooker joined other Michigan legislators in speaking during a Rally for Religious Liberty at the state Capitol, and submitted a resolution for consideration on the House floor. The resolution challenges the legitimacy of the Obergefell ruling, and emphasizes that Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides specific processes that do not involve the judicial branch as the only means of amending the Constitution.
Michigan officials should "reclaim this state's sovereignty by not recognizing or enforcing" the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave same-sex couples the right to marry, according to a resolution set to be introduced in the state House. State Rep. Tom Hooker, R-Byron Center, read his pending resolution out loud Wednesday during a "rally to protect religious people and stop persecution of religious people" outside the Michigan Capitol.