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Iowa Supreme Court to Hear Oral Argument Friday in Lesbian Civil Union Dissolution Case

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"We will urge the court to recognize that disapproval of gay couples doesn't give these individuals the right to interfere in other people's personal lives."
January 11, 2005

(Des Moines, January 11, 2005) – In oral argument set for Friday, January 14, at 9 a.m. at the Iowa Supreme Court, Lambda Legal and local organizations will fend off an attack by antigay groups who seek to overturn a local court order granting two Sioux City women’s request to terminate their civil union.


“We will urge the court to recognize that disapproval of gay couples doesn’t give these individuals the right to interfere in other people’s personal lives,” said Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office, who will argue the case on Friday. “A judge in his rightful authority has already addressed this matter. Iowa judges regularly resolve a wide range of matters between couples who live together, regardless of the status of their relationship or whether they’re married. A handful of legislators and others have tried to insinuate themselves into this particular case because this time it involves two lesbians.”


The two women filed papers to dissolve their civil union in August of 2003. The judge in their case noted that he was simply resolving a legal matter between a couple as the state’s courts routinely do.


In February of 2004, a group of state legislators, a congressman and a northwest Iowa church filed a petition to be heard by the Iowa State Supreme Court. They filed a lawsuit asserting that the judge, Jeffrey Neary in the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, lacked authority to declare the rights of the two women and terminate their civil union, and they asked the state high court to hear their case.


Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief last June, signed by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Central Iowa, that urged the court to throw the case out. The brief argued that none of the parties involved in the challenge have legal standing to interfere in the case because they aren’t harmed in any way by Judge Neary’s decision. The brief also pointed out that Iowa law permits a court to terminate a civil union, so that the members of the couple can move on with their lives with certainty about their legal rights, plan financially and start new families.


Friday’s oral argument will focus on whether these antigay groups and individuals have the right to interfere with the trial court’s authority to provide necessary relief to this lesbian couple. In November, Iowans voted to retain Judge Neary, despite aggressive efforts by antigay groups to unseat him.


Who:Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office, with support from co-counsel Sharon Malheiro of Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, P.C., the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Central Iowa.


What: Oral arguments in Alons et al v. Iowa District Court for Woodbury County. Taylor will be available to the press after arguing the case.


When: Friday, January 14, at 9 a.m.


Where: Iowa Supreme Court, 1111 East Court Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa.


*** Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office, will be presenting the oral argument in the case and will be available to the press for comment immediately after the court proceedings on Friday.

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