Tag Archives: AFER

Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: The National Organization for Marriage is scrambling to defend Oregon’s marriage ban at the last minute, but things aren’t exactly going how they’d hoped. The case to overturn Virginia’s marriage ban gets a boost from one of the authors of the state’s constitution. And the Governor of Pennsylvania wants to skip a trial on marriage and go straight …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: “The lawyer who led the defense of Proposition 8 now says his attitudes are evolving as he plans his daughter’s lesbian wedding. Michigan officials are trying to invalidate hundreds of couples’ marriage licenses, but now those couples are fighting back. And a Judge in Ohio has issued one of the most strongly-worded rejections of a marriage ban to …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: A Republican icon comes out in support of marriage equality. We’ve had a sting of major marriage wins in the last few months, but now anti-gay groups will keep trying to tear those victories down in a series of hearings. Support for marriage equality is picking up in conservative states, a terminally ill woman in Indiana is one …

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VIRGINIA: AG Mark Herring Files Brief In Support Of Gay Marriage Plaintiffs

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring today filed a brief with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of AFER’s marriage equality lawsuit. Herring’s brief argues that heightened scrutiny is applicable in the suit. Money quote below: Virginia’s same-sex-marriage ban violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because the ban substantially interferes with the right …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: “Anti-gay groups are getting desperate, with one candidate for governor comparing marriage equality to murder. An Alabama scheme to slip a marriage ban into the US Constitution is moving forward but is pretty much guaranteed to fail. A judge in Ohio rules that marriage equality isn’t only for dead people anymore. Plus, a major marriage victory in Utah …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: “Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has good news and bad news marriage in Michigan. One Missouri lawmaker is taking a stand for equality. We have more good news from national polling. And five couples in Mississippi requested marriage licenses last week. What happened next will probably not surprise you.”

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VIRGINIA: Norfolk County Clerk Files Appeal Of Gay Marriage Ban Overturn, Claims Brothers Will Now Get Married

Attorneys representing Norfolk County Clerk George Schaefer yesterday filed an appeal of the decision that overturned Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. The filing claims, among other things, that the legalization of gay marriage will lead to brothers getting married for the tax and insurance benefits. Just like brothers and sisters have done since marriage was invented by God. “Same-sex marriage …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: Michigan’s marriage ban is unconstitutional. Oklahoma couples fight back in court against an anti-gay group making misleading claims about children. A pro-equality ruling is delayed, pending appeal. But another is put in place as of now. We have some important hearings coming up very soon. And pro-equality Republicans hang on to their seats in a tight election.

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: Two more polls show public support for marriage equality at a historic high — and our opponents at a historic low. Marriages are happening early in Illinois, we have new lawsuits in Florida and Wyoming, and Kentucky’s Attorney General takes a stand against the state’s marriage ban. A day late because Matt spoke at SXSW yesterday.

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VIRGINIA: Fourth Circuit Grants AFER Request For Expedited Marriage Hearing

Via press release from AFER: On Monday, March 10, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted AFER’s proposed motion for an expedited briefing schedule in Virginia’s marriage equality case, Bostic v. Schaefer (formerly Bostic v. Rainey). On February 13, 2014, the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in Bostic v. Rainey that …

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Matt Baume Is At SXSW

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: “We have a schedule for the appeal of AFER’s victory in Virginia, and it’s moving at a breakneck pace. Plus huge victories this week in Kentucky, Illinois and Texas. A trial continues in Michigan, and we have new polling data in numerous states, and it’s all good news.”

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LGBT Groups Tangle Over Which One Will Bring Marriage Fight Back To SCOTUS

Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed: The fight to win marriage equality across the nation has in recent months become nearly as much a fight about which lawyers and organizations will get to be the ones making the arguments before the Supreme Court — and taking credit for a win. Now, that fight is breaking out into the open. On Wednesday, …

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VA County Clerk & State Registrar Appeal Overturn Of Marriage Ban To Fourth Circuit

Via the Virginian-Pilot: As expected, a Norfolk federal judge’s decision declaring Virginia’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutional was appealed today. An appeal on behalf of Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk George Schaefer, one of the defendants, was filed this afternoon shortly after U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen entered her final order in the case. Schaefer is represented by David Oakley, a Virginia …

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap: The race to the Supreme Court intensifies, with multiple new lawsuits and an expedited schedule. Oregon won’t defend its marriage ban in court, and a marriage lawsuit in Virginia might have reached a premature end. Plus polling from Louisiana shows progress, but it’s been slow.

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Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip description: Virginia’s marriage ban is unconstitutional, with a strongly-worded victory in AFER’s case. And that’s just the start of multiple marriage wins from coast to coast this week. We have good news coming out of Kentucky, Indiana, and Nevada, plus several new lawsuits, hearings, and favorable polls.

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VIRGINIA: AFER And Marriage Plaintiffs Hold Celebratory Press Conference

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LGBT Groups React To Virginia Ruling

AFER Through its decision today, the court has upheld the principles of equality upon which this nation was founded,” said Plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. “Virginia’s prohibition on marriage for same-sex couples relegates gay and lesbian Virginians to second-class status. Laws excluding gay men and lesbians from marriage violate personal freedom, are an …

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BREAKING: Judge Strikes Down Virginia’s Ban On Gay Marriage, Ruling STAYED

From AFER’s website: The Federal District Court ruled that Virginia’s marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution. It said that loving couples like our plaintiffs, Tim Bostic & Tony London and Carol Schall & Mary Townley are entitled to the same basic rights and protections as every other American. This is a monumental victory—for Virginia and our country—and the first of …

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