The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on April 28th regarding the rights of same-sex couples to marry. The momentum on this issue is with the LGBT community as ruling after ruling from the lower courts has found many state bans on gay marriage to be unconstitutional. There is of course a chance that this…
This morning the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision ruling the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion writing that “the federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to…
The Supreme Court will rule this June on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and whether or not the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages. Immigration law is federal and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and State Department are federal agencies that can grant greencards and immigrant visas to spouses of U.S. Citizens. If…
I will be speaking about LGBT asylum law and same-sex marriage greencards on a panel at Gay City in Capitol Hill Seattle on March 27th at 7PM. See the following description of the event from the website of Social Outreach Seattle. Following the success of Social Outreach Seattle’s “What’s Next After Marriage?” Forum, SOSea’s [TED] Program will continue engaging…
Guest Blog By Lianne Holt-Jensen J.D.Candidate 2014 Seattle University School of Law On September 26th 2012, letters were distributed clarifying the guidelines used to apply the policy of prosecutorial discretion in cases of same-sex partners. Under prosecutorial discretion, immigrants, with no criminal records, in same-sex partnerships, have been allowed to remain in the United States.…