LGBT rights

Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a law yesterday allowing businesses to deny services to gays on the grounds of religious freedom, Reuters' Mary Wisniewski reports. LGBT-rights groups are concerned that the law will be used by businesses that do not want to provide services for same-sex weddings. Proponents of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act said it will allow business owners of all faiths to protect against being forced to act against their strongly held religious beliefs.

Utah has enacted a law that allows county clerks to opt out of performing same-sex marriage on religious grounds as long as somene else in their office is willing to perform them, reports Fox 13, the affiliate in Salt Lake City: "The bill was an attempt to address religious objections over same-sex marriage, while also guaranteeing what the courts had ordered when it legalized such unions last year."

Slovenia has become the 11th country in the European Union to approve same-sex marriage, Euronews' Seamus Kearney reports. The Slovenian Parliament also voted in favor of legalizing adoption by gay and lesbian couples.

A new wrinkle has developed in the tussle between the federal judiciary and the Alabama judiciary over the fate of same-sex marriage in that state, the Los Angeles Times' James Queally and Ryan Parker report. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled yesterday that judges should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even though a federal judge has ruled the state's ban on same-sex matrimony is unconstitutional: "Six of the court’s nine justices concurred and a seventh did so in part in the 148-page ruling, published Tuesday night."

Chief Justice Roy Moore, who ordered the state's probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, recused himself from the decision. But the federal judge who declared the ban unconstitutional ordered all of the state's probate judges to comply with her order.

The Alabama Supreme Court cited confusion among the state's probate judges as the reason that licenses should not be issued right now, Queally and Parker report.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon has struck down Nebraska's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage as well as the state's ban on adoption by same-sex couples, the Lincoln Journal Star's Lori Pilger reports. The judge also granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs.

"For the majority of married couples, those without children in the home, marriage is a legal and emotional commitment to the welfare of their partner," Bataillon opined. "The state clearly has the right to encourage couples to marry and provide support for one another. However, those laws must be enforced equally and without respect to gender." The opinion can be read here: http://journalstar.com/links/online-exclusives/read-bataillon-s-order/pd...

Bataillon already struck down the ban before in 2005, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned his ruling. Bataillion's decision notes that the Eighth Circuit rejected the argument in the prior case that the Nebraska constitutional amendment violated the right of gay and lesbian Nebraskans to access the political process; the appeals court also found that strict scrutiny should not apply to gays and lesbians.

This time, Bataillon found that heightened scrutiny should apply to the ban because the "challenged amendment 'proceeds along suspect lines,' as either gender-based or gender-stereotype-based discrimination."

A Washington state judge has ruled that a florist violated that state's consumer protection law when she refused to sell flowers for a same-sex marriage, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joel Connelly reports. Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom said that, despite the florist's religious beliefs, "'in trade and commerce, and more particularly when seeking to prevent discrimination in public accommodations, the Courts have confirmed the power of the Legislative Branch to prohibit conduct it deems discriminatory even where the motivation for that conduct is grounded in religious belief.'"

The Lone Star State's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a county probate judge ruled today, Los Angeles Times' Lauren Raab reports. Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman ruled that Texas' constitutional and statutory bans violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.

A federal judge already overturned the bans last year.

Last week, the Italian Court of Cassation ruled that there is nothing in that country's constitution to require that same-sex couples get marriage rights, The Washington Blade's Michael K. Lavers reports. But the court said that lesbian and gay Italians do have the right to a "'protective'" law to ensure they have the same rights as other unmarried couples.

A federal judge has ordered an Alabama probate judge not to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples anymore, the Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. The probate judge closed his marriage-license bureau after Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Sunday ordered probate judges not to issues licenses to same-sex couples. U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade struck down Alabama's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex matrimony, and the stay on her order was lifted Monday. At the close of the business day, 19 counties were not issuing marriage licenses, and 25 had closed their bureaus altogether.

As of Monday afternoon, 49 of 67 counties in Alabama refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in Alabama, Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. Even though a federal judge has struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered the probate judges not to issue same-sex marriages. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to grant a stay against the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses.

U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade, who struck down the state's ban on same-sex matrimony, denied a motion for contempt against Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis for refusing to issue marriage licenses, ruling that the parties had not yet shown they were harmed by a failure for the constitution to be followed.