Alabama

On Friday, US District Judge Callie V.S. Granade ruled that Alabama's constitutional ban on gay marriage violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the federal Constitution's 14th Amendment, Christian Science Monitor's Jessica Mendoza reports.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, who "campaigned as an opponent of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act," now supports expanding Medicaid block-grant funding to more low-income Alabamans, Media Group's Mike Cason reports: Bentley said "he would support an Alabama-designed plan that required recipients to be working or in a work training program. ... Bentley [also] said with a block grant the state could request proposals from private insurers to provide the expanded coverage."

Bentley also suggested that President Barack Obama's administration might be more receptive to his version of a Medicaid expansion because the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a case posing an existential threat to Obamacare: can the federal government provide tax credits and subsidies to low-income and moderate-income consumers shopping for insurance on the federally-run insurance exchange, instead of state-run exchanges?

Alabama voters passed an amendment barring judges from using foreign law when "doing so would violate any state law or a right guaranteed by the Constitution of this state or of the United States.” Eugene Volokh blogs that the amendment is not really banning foreign law. Alabama judges can use foreign law in "tort cases arising from injuries in foreign countries, determining the family status of people who were married or adopted children in foreign countries, and more," as well as applying religious law, such as Sharia, when applying the foreign law of a country that incorporates Sharia into its legal system, Volokh says.

A deceased Alabama man's same-sex spouse is seeking to overturn Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage and have their marriage in Massachusetts recognized for purposes of settling his estate, the Associated Press reports. But the man's mother opposes same-sex marriage and has intervened to prevent her son's estate being shared with his widower.

There have been more positive developments this week in favor of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights:

One, Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down, Christian Science Monitor reports. The ruling is the first in the south to overturn a voter-backed prohibition on same-sex matrimony as unconstitutional.

Two, the Associated Press reports that a federal judge ruled this week that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The judge struck down the clause on recognizing out-of-state same-sex matrimony as imposing a traditional or faith-based limitation without a sufficient justification for it, the AP also reports.

Three, the Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's same-sex marriage ban, the Washington Blade reports. The issue involves a same-sex couple in which one spouse was killed in a car accident and his widower is barred from receiving the majority of any settlement money in a wrongful death action. Opposite-sex spouses get that privilege in Alabama.

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore mailed letters this week to all 50 governors asking them to urge their legislatures to call for a national convention on amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, the Associated Press reports. The chief justice also is "known on the national stage for fighting to display the Ten Commandments in a judicial building," the AP reports. Moore told the AP it's the only way to "stop judges who are finding new rights to gay unions." Moore also said he was upholding Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage.

An Article V convention has never been held.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Now the Alabama Supreme Court has set out a 14-factor test that judges can use to decide if juveniles convicted of murder can be sentenced to life with or without the possiblity of parole. The Sentencing Law and Policy Blog noted that the Alabama Supreme Court found an opinon from the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Commonwealth v. Knox, helpful in setting out the 14 factors, which include the juvenile's mental-health hisotry, the juvenile's emotional maturity and development and "any other relevant factor related to the juvenile's youth."