Press Releases

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief strongly arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional in a case brought by Lambda Legal and Morrison & Foerster LLP on behalf of Karen Golinski, a lesbian federal court employee denied medical coverage for her wife, whom she married when same-sex couples could do so in California. The DOJ had previously announced they would no longer defend DOMA, but this is the first legal filing in the country in which they have fully argued to a court that DOMA is unconstitutional. They asked the federal court not to dismiss Golinski's claim.

Days after New York voted for marriage equality, Lambda Legal goes back to court in New Jersey representing Garden State Equality and seven same-sex couples.

Today, the New York state legislature voted to pass the marriage equality bill introduced by Governor Andrew Cuomo, ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage in New York. New York becomes the sixth state in the nation, in addition to the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples have the right to marry.

(Madison, Wisconsin, June 20, 2011)—Today, the Circuit Court, Branch 11 in Dane County, Wisconsin, upheld as constitutional the state's Domestic Partner Registry.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled today that being gay doesn't disqualify a judge from ruling impartially on a case involving rights that impact lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

This morning the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California heard oral arguments on a motion filed by Prop 8 proponents seeking to overturn Judge Walker's ruling striking down Prop 8 as unconstitutional because he has been in a relationship with another man for 10 years.

A coalition of groups that advocate for the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people today filed a brief urging the U.S. District Court not to vacate last year's historic ruling invalidating Proposition 8. Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU of Northern California and Equality California filed the friend-of-the-court brief in Perry v. Brown in response to a motion filed last month by supporters of Proposition 8 that asked the court to undo last year's decision in that case. The Prop 8 supporters contend that now-retired Chief Judge Vaughn Walker should have declined to hear the case because he was in a long-term relationship with another man, and that the judge's 135-page decision, which followed a three-week trial, should be invalidated for that reason.

In reaction to today's filing of a motion to vacate last year's historic decision by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker declaring California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, Jon Davidson, Legal Director for Lambda Legal, issued the following statement: Proponents of Proposition 8 certainly are getting desperate. This reeks of a hail-Mary attempt to assail Judge Walker's character because they are unable to rebut the extremely well-reasoned ruling he issued last year. It's becoming a sadly typical move of the right: don't like the ruling; attack the referee.

In reaction to the news that the law firm King & Spalding has withdrawn from representing House leadership in cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Legal Director Jon Davidson.

(New York, April 15, 2011)—Yesterday, the Delaware House of Representatives voted 26-15 to approve a civil unions bill that will provide same-sex couples who enter into such civil unions the same rights, protections and obligations now granted in Delaware to married couples. The Senate had approved the measure earlier, and the Governor has announced he will sign the bill into law.