Summary: The same-sex marriage ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court is being cited by judges all across the nation as the address legal issues that deal with marriage rights and even some cases without marriage issues.
The U.S Supreme Court made the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges just over a month ago. Since that ruling, numerous district and federal judges have been citing the case in their own cases, some that don’t even deal with marriage.
Cases that were pending that challenged same-sex marriage state bans were immediately affected by the ruling. Now cases that dealt with the rights and benefits of legally married couples are citing the monumental ruling.
A case in Utah last week cited Obergefell when ruling on the parental recognition rights of two legally married women. The women had a child through a sperm donor. The parental law originally used the language of man and husband so their claim that a female spouse to the birth mother should be treated with the same rights as a male spouse would have easily been proven to be lawful.
A federal magistrate judge in Idaho cited the Supreme Court decision when ruling on the requirement for an Idaho State Veterans Cemetery to allow a woman to be buried next to her deceased spouse. The couple was legally married in California back in 2008.
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California used Obergefell as an explanation of why a man’s challenge to the denial of this female fiancée’s visa petition does not equal the same rights as a married couple.
A New York County case argued the validity of a marriage between a man and a woman that did not obtain a marriage license but were married through a Jewish ceremony. The judge used Obergefell in his ruling that the couple needed a license.
One case cited Obergefell, even though it nothing to do with marriage. A New York federal district judge dismissed a class action, using the case in a footnote of his ruling.
Source: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/home/id=1202733182260
Photo: notchesblog.com
