Tag Archives: ACLU

Celebrities and journalists endorsing the rally include Wil Wheaton, Glenn Greenwald, Anil Dash, and Daniel Ellsberg. Details are here. (Tipped by JMG reader Win)

McCarter is the bill’s chief co-sponsor with openly gay Rep. Brian Sims. Separate from the legislative action, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has hired an outside law firm to defend the state against a marriage equality suit filed in July by the ACLU.  And Montgomery County’s attorney is expected to appeal the decision forcing County Clerk Bruce Hanes to stop issuing …

Via press release from the ACLU: Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico welcomed the news that all 33 County Clerks in New Mexico intervened in the freedom to marry lawsuit as defendants. ALCU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson: “We believe that the county clerks intervening in our lawsuit puts New Mexico on an expedited …

Earlier this year the Republican Party of Illinois ousted its chairman, Pat Brady, after NOM and other anti-gay groups called for his removal for endorsing same-sex marriage.  But Brady now has a new gig. The ACLU hired Next Generation Public Affairs, a governmental affairs and public relations firm co-founded by Brady and Matt Strawn, former chairman of the Iowa Republican …

ACLU LGBT Project In response to Chelsea Manning’s disclosure that she is female, has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and will be seeking hormone therapy as a part of her transition during her incarceration, public statements by military officials that the Army does not provide hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria raise serious constitutional concerns. Gender dysphoria is a serious …

“Arguing that marriage should be available to any human beings who profess to love each other not only ignores unique biological fruitfulness of male and female unions, but it also makes us wonder when — and why — plaintiffs would ever draw the line. Stretching plaintiffs’ rationale to the limits of their logic, why or how could they bar or …

Today in Illinois the Cook County Circuit Court heard oral arguments in the anti-gay Thomas More Society’s bid to dismiss the marriage equality lawsuit brought in May 2012 by Lambda Legal and the ACLU. Lambda Legal writes via press release: Today we urged the court to ensure that same-sex couples and their families get their day in court. We put …

A coalition of the LGBT rights groups today announced a $2M campaign to support the passage of ENDA.  Via press release: Today the bipartisan campaign Americans for Workplace Opportunity announced it had formed in order to take advantage of a historic opportunity to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act 19 years after its first introduction — a bill to ban workplace …

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against Montana on behalf of seven gay couples who have been denied the benefits of marriage. The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana filed its amended complaint after the state Supreme Court rejected its first lawsuit in December for being too broad and not identifying specific laws that are discriminatory. In the amended lawsuit, …

Matt Comer reports at Q Notes: North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has announced his office will not block the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina’s move to challenge the state’s anti-LGBT constitutional amendment on marriage.  The case is heading to a federal court in Greensboro. The ACLU wants to amend their current lawsuit challenging anti-gay second-parent adoption bans …

“I cannot ethically defend the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s (law banning same-sex marriage), where I believe it to be wholly unconstitutional.” – Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, confirming earlier reports in comments made this morning to reporters at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.  A spokesman for GOP Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has declined to comment on Lambda Legal and the …

The Washington Post has the potentially huge news: Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit filed this week challenging the constitutionality of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, lawyers involved in the case said. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents, including 10 couples, a widow …

And the hits keep coming! Via press release: Just two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Illinois will file a motion for summary judgment, asking for a swift ruling in favor of the freedom to marry in Illinois. The filing will be immediately followed by …

The ACLU is on a ROLL today! Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) announced plans to challenge North Carolina’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples by amending a federal lawsuit filed against the state last year on behalf of six same-sex couples and their children that challenges North Carolina’s ban …

Via press release: Today Lambda Legal announced that it is in the planning stages of a new federal lawsuit seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Virginia with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “The end of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act opens a new chapter in our work to ensure same-sex couples and their families across …

The Associated Press reports: The lawsuit, to be filed in federal court in Harrisburg, also will ask a federal judge to prevent state officials from stopping gay couples from getting married. It names Gov. Tom Corbett, Attorney General Kathleen Kane and three other officials. The plaintiffs are one widow, 10 couples and one of the couples’ two teenage daughters, and …

Homocon Jimmy LaSalvia has landed a new gig after leaving GOProud earlier this year. As part of the broad-based effort to involve conservatives in the movement to encourage the freedom to marry, the ACLU has hired conservative strategist Jimmy LaSalvia. LaSalvia is the founder and former executive director of GOProud and will work with the ACLU to do outreach to …

Via press release from the ACLU: A federal judge today ruled that a state law that would have barred many public entities from providing health insurance to the domestic partners of their employees is unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union and Kirkland & Ellis LLP challenged the law on behalf of five gay and lesbian public employees, as well as …

The ACLU yesterday filed suit against the Obama administration, demanding an end to the collection of phone records by the NSA. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The practice is akin to snatching every American’s address book — with annotations detailing whom …

The ACLU is prodding ABC to have the gay characters on Modern Family get married. Having two main characters in a wildly popular show get married would put the issue of marriage equality in living rooms across the country and generate conversations about the importance of allowing same-sex couples to marry – the kinds of conversations that we know change …