LGBT rights

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered a ban on same-sex marriage licenses, even though a federal judge in Alabama has found the state's ban on same-sex nuptials unconstitutional, the Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. The stay on the federal court decision is set to expire today. The chief justice argued that federal district and appellate courts had no binding authority on state courts, Lyman reports. What effect Moore's orders will have is still unclear. 

A referendum aiming to strengthen Slovakia's ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption failed because of low turnout, BBC reports. Only 21 percent of those eligible voted. One of questions was whether marriage can only be between opposite-sex couples.

The Eleventh Circuit has denied Alabama's request to stay a decision striking down that state's ban on same-sex marriage, the Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. The bans include a statute and a constitutional amendment. Now the request for a stay is being pursued to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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.

Vietnam has abolished its ban on same-sex marriage, Bloomberg's John Boudreau and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen reports: "The revised law, while not officially recognizing same-sex marriage, places the communist country at the forefront of countries in Asia becoming more accepting of gay people." The government won't recognize the marriages or provide legal protections like divorce or rules on splitting up assets upon death. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Bloomberg no other country in Southeast Asia has taken as big a step toward accepting same-sex marriage as Vietnam.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed a rule that would require long-term care facilities to extend spousal rights to same-sex married couples, McKnight's Tim Mullaney reports. CMS said in the proposed rule "'our goal is to provide equal treatment to spouses, regardless of their sex, whenever the marriage was valid in the jurisdiction in which it was entered into, without regard to whether the marriage is also recognized in the state of residence or the jurisdiction in which the healthcare provider or supplier is located.'"

Even in states that don't recognize same-sex marriage, the stick to make facilities follow the rule would be that their funding from Medicare and Medicaid would be contigent on their obedience to the regulation.

The Hawai'i Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on a challenge to a law authorizing same-sex marriage, the Associated Press' Jennifer Sinco Kelleher reports. The challengers to the law argue that legislators did not have the authority to pass the law because of a constitutional amendment.

Sabrina McKenna, the first openly gay Supreme Court justice in Hawai'i, recused herself.

The Washington Post's Supreme Court beat reporter Robert Barnes says that the regular pattern for the justices is to take a case before the end of January in order to set render a decision by the end of the term in June. While the court declined to take up the issue of same-sex marriage last fall, this time there is a split between circuit court of appeals on whether same-sex marriage bans are constitutional or not. Barnes notes a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit "upheld marriage bans in Michigan and Kentucky, and recognition bans in Ohio and Tennessee."

Two bans on same-sex marriage were struck down yesterday in Mississippi and Arkansas. According to the Associated Press' Emily Wagster Pettus, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves granted a preliminary injunction against Mississippi's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. According to SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston, U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker struck down Arkansas' ban even though the state officials said the issue was closed by a 2oo6 ruling from the Eighth Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas. Baker and a judge in Missouri "found that the precedent was not controlling, because the 2006 decision was based on other legal grounds and also hasd been overtaken by more recent constitutional developments," Denniston reports.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled yesterday that Montana's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, the Los Angeles Times reports. He found that the state's constitutional ban on same-sex matrimony violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.