A federal judge in Michigan ruled Thursday in favor of a Detroit-based funeral home who fired a transgender employee due to her gender identity. U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) could be used as a defense in a sex discrimination claim under Title VII — exempting the…
A federal judge today ruled against the ban on same-sex marriage in Kansas. The Washington Blade reports that U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree, an Obama appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement on Kansas law prohibiting of marriage rights for same-sex couples. The injunction is warranted, Crabtree writes, because of legal precedent and because…
Today U.S. District Judge John E. Jones, III ruled that Pennsylvania’s law banning marriage equality is unconstitutional. Pennsylvania becomes the tenth state where a federal judge has struck down a marriage ban since the U.S. Supreme Court issued their two marriage-related rulings last year. Just yesterday a federal judge in Oregon struck down that state’s…
Today U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger ordered Tennessee state officials to recognize the out-of-state marriages of three same-sex couples during consideration of their lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s constitutional amendment banning their recognition. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin issued the following statement: “Yet another federal judge has recognized that bans on marriage equality don’t…
Kentucky has become the latest state to have its ban on marriage equality ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, and the case will soon join others based in Utah, Nevada, Ohio and Oklahoma at the appellate level. U.S. District Court Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky ’s marriage amendment violates the constitutional principal…
