by Dan Mahoney | Dec 9, 2016 | freedom to marry, gay American Indians, LGBT Native Americans, LGBT in Indian tribes, LGBT reservations, Cherokee, Same-sex marriage, Cherokee Nation
NCLR represents Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley, a same-sex couple who are members of the Cherokee Nation. In May 2004, Reynolds and McKinley obtained a marriage certificate from the Cherokee Nation and married shortly thereafter. The next month, another member of the Cherokee Nation filed a petition seeking to invalidate Reynolds and McKinley’s marriage. NCLR successfully defended Reynolds and McKinley before the Cherokee high court. Two days later, various members of the Cherokee...
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by Dan Mahoney | May 18, 2012 | gay marriage, divorce, Same-sex marriage, lesbian couple, lesbian divorce, out-of-state marriage, LGBT Maryland, lesbian
Jessica Port and Virginia Anne Cowan married in California in 2008. Unfortunately, their relationship broke down and they made the difficult decision to end their marriage. They were residents of Maryland at that time, and sought a divorce in a Maryland court in 2010. Longstanding Maryland law provides that couples who validly married in another state are recognized as married in Maryland, even if the couple would not have been able to marry in Maryland. However, the trial court found that...
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by Dan Mahoney | May 22, 2009 | freedom to marry, gay marriage, Proposition 8, Same-sex marriage, Ninth Circuit, California gay marriage, Prop 8, DOMA
On May 22, 2009, two same-sex couples filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenging California’s Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit marriage by same-sex couples. California’s Governor and Attorney General agreed with the plaintiffs that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. Judge Vaughn Walker permitted Proposition 8’s supporters to intervene as defendants, and also permitted the City and County of...
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