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June 2021 UPDATE: The Dallas Court of Appeals has withdraw their original opinion in this case from December 2020 and replaced it with a new opinion. The new opinion eliminates the dicta (lawyer word for unnecessary opining) about the issue of retroactivity of same-sex marriage pre-Obergefell and sticks to the main question of

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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined review of the Box v. Henderson case filed by the State of Indiana in June of 2020, which presented the Court with the issue of whether a state may adopt a biology-based birth certificate system that includes a rebuttable presumption that a birth mother’s husband-but not wife-is the child’s…

A new opinion out of the Court of Appeals in the Thirteenth District of Texas applies the paternity presumption under the Texas Uniform Parentage Act to a female non-bio parent in a same sex marriage, where the child was born during the parties’ marriage.

Jennifer Treto appealed the trial court’s ruling, arguing that she is…

Newly-elected Judge Sonya L. Heath of the 310th District Court of Harris County dismissed the Pidgeon case last week after ruling on competing final motions for summary judgment by either party.

In 2013, the Houston Mayor directed that the City provide employee benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages, the same as spouses in heterosexual…

The American Bar Association’s Standing committee on Ethics released a formal opinion last week on guidance for judges performing same-sex marriage: In wake of landmark decision, ABA issues guidance for judges performing same-sex marriages. Their guidance interprets the Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

The Formal Opinion 485 incorporates procedures and policies developed for judges…

For most couples with children, a breakup in their relationship does not equate to losing their children. However, when it comes to same sex couples, particularly those who never married, there are legal barriers that prevent them from asserting their rights as parents to their children.

In a recent case out of the Fourth Court…

Suzan and Kimberly McLaughlin, a married lesbian couple, conceived a child using artificial insemination with an anonymous donor in 2011.  When the parties later separated in 2013, Kimberly began restricting Suzan’s access to the child.  Suzan filed a lawsuit seeking to be recognized as a parent that same year.  In April 2016, the trial court…

I still get questions about how Texas’ informal (aka common law) marriage statute applies to same-sex couples prior to the date that the Obergefell opinion was released. Remember that Obergefell found that the provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act prohibiting marriage between couples of the same sex are unconstitutional, thus legalizing same-sex marriage.

The…

ss marriage trendGallup conducted their annual poll of Americans’ support for same-sex marriage. The results… 64% of Americans think same-sex marriage should be legal. This is the highest approval rating in US history. In 1996, when Gallup first conducted this poll, only 27% of Americans approved.

This year’s poll also revealed that, for the first time, a…

ohio state moritzI ran across an interesting law review article from Susan Frelich Appleton out of Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law called Obergefell’s Liberties: All in the Family. The article joins the debate about whether the Obergefell case only protects liberty against the interference by the state regarding the right to marry (public liberty)…