The Obama Brief: How Obama Transformed the Federal Judiciary

To the extent that there is an Obama legal legacy, it centers on gay rights and voting rights, subjects that the President addresses more with caution than with passion.

In July, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling that threatened the future of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. By a vote of two to one, the court held, in Halbig v. Burwell, that the insurance subsidies that allow millions of Americans to buy health insurance were contrary to the text of the law and thus were illegal. If such a decision had been made earlier in Obama’s tenure, lawyers for his Administration would have been left with a single, risky option: an appeal to the politically polarized, and usually conservative, Supreme Court. Read More

Mexico's Coahuila state legalizes same-sex marriage

For the first time, a Mexican state legislature has voted to legalize same-sex marriage. The new law alters more than 40 parts of the state's Civil Code. Read More

US: Gay Marriage Bans In Idaho, Nevada And Hawaii Head To Court

"Until all 50 states get on board, it's a legal battle from state to state," said Tara Newberry, one of the plaintiffs in the Nevada case, who wants to marry her longtime partner. "The map is changing. But until the Supreme Court of the United States makes the determination, it's state-by-state."  Read More

Bishop of Buckingham speaks out in support of same-sex marriage

Equal marriage was praised by Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Revd Dr Alan Wilson, in a debate on whether same-sex marriages should be allowed in church. Same-sex marriage passed into law in March, but gay weddings in the Church of England are still prohibited. A prominent supporter of gay marriage, he told worshipers that the Christian tradition holds “the root of marriage is not sex but companionship”. He said: “The idea that marriage is about friendship has become extremely powerful in England.” Read More

Ecuador Grants New Status to Same-Sex Couples

After negotiations with LGBTI activists, President Rafael Correa has approved the official recognition of same-sex unions. Although he supports these unions, he doesn't support gay marriage. The Ecuadoran Constitution grants equal rights to "cohabitation partnerships" regardless if they are civil or Catholic marriages, so the LGBT community gains more legal recognition with this legislation. Read More

Nepal to legalize homosexuality and same-sex marriages, says law minister

This assurance comes amid fears that the government would confirm a 2011 proposal to recriminalize same-sex relationships.

Narahari Acharya, the country's minister for law, justice, parliamentary affairs and constituent assembly, said "[The bill] shall be our effort to grant equal status to homosexual and heterosexual relationships. The Muluki Ain is 160 years old and the last serious amendment to it was [made] 50 years ago. Efforts are under way to revise it and give it a new progressive face." Read More

Creating a global organization to oppose marriage equality

The National Organization for Marriage is continuing to work towards the creation of an International Organization for Marriage, NOM President Brian Brown said.

A planning meeting was held around last year’s March for Marriage, convening members of groups opposed to marriage equality from around 70 countries to begin working to that goal. This year’s march does not feature the international speakers that last year’s did, perhaps because of the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state bans on same-sex marriage.

Although “we have our hands full here in the U.S.” at the moment, Brown said, the group was “definitely” still working to establish “an organization that focuses on uniting people of different faiths and different backgrounds internationally” to oppose same-sex marriage.  Read More