In a majority 4-to-3 decision, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners. The judges said the ruling had nothing to do with the rights of gay couples to marry. But a dissenting judge criticised his colleagues as ‘radically altering common law marriage in Montana’, reports The New York Times. Gay rights advocates said the decision was an important victory on the narrower point. ‘It is the first time that any state high court has ruled that a state has a constitutional obligation to provide domestic partner healthcare benefits,’ said James Esseks, the litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and G ay Rights and AIDS Projects, which represented the two lesbian couples who brought the suit challenging the state's policy. Full report in The New York Times
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Gay rights issues will be top of the agenda at the US Supreme Court justices' first private conference of the new year today (Friday). The Florida gay adoption case, Lofton v Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, is one of dozens of cases the court will discuss at its conference with an eye toward granting or denying review, reports the Legal Times. If the justices do grant review, the case will give the court its first chance to comment on the scope of its 2003 Lawrence v Texasruling that announced due process and privacy rights for homosexuals. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly applied Lawrence and an earlier ruling – Romer v Evans – on January 28, 2004, when it upheld Florida's 1977 law excluding g ay people from eligibility as adoptive parents. Florida is the only state that explicitly bars homosexuals from adopting children.
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A SA woman, HayleyReyersbach, has been granted full custody of her three-year-old daughter by a US court after two years of legal battles in SA and America. The Daily News reports the first court ruling was in February 2003 when the Durban High Court ruled that Reyersbach, who had fled the US six months earlier with her 16-month-old daughter, must return Alyssa to her father, Robert Pennello, in New Jersey. Reyersbach appealed against the decision in the Pietermaritzburg High court, which ruled that Alyssa could remain with her mother until the custody hearing was finalised. Pennello, however, appealed against this decision and in July he and Reyersbach divorced, leaving her without a green card. In December 2003, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein ruled that Reyersbach and Alyssa must return to New Jersey. The order to return to New Jersey was granted under the provisions of The Hague Convention, which deems Reyersbach's actions in America in leaving the country with her daughter to be child abduction. Her final appeal to the Constitutional Court was refused. Full report in the Daily News
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A three-month amnesty period in which to hand in illegal firearms and ammunition began on January 1, according to the Department of Safety and Security. Illegal firearms and ammunition can be handed to any police station in SA without fear of prosecution until March 31,said Safety and Security spokesperson Trevor Bloem in an IoL report. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula announced the amnesty in terms of the Firearms Control Act, 2000. The amnesty does not extend to any offences committed with illegal firearms. Full report on the IoL site
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The Human Rights Commission has welcomed the government's decision to challenge the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling on same-sex marriages, with the chairman of the commission, Jody Kollapen, saying the appeal would remove any uncertainty about the ruling. A report in the Daily News says Kollapen's reaction came after the Department of Home Affairs lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Court challenging the November judgment, which said gay unions should be recognised in law. Full report in the Daily News
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