Lambda Legal has been hard at work on a broad range of issues including immigration, HIV, relationship recognition and workplace equality. With decisions last month in two high-profile cases they have been working with, they are now looking to the U. S. Supreme Court. It is the biggest breakthrough in the largest legal stage in the country ever in our history.
The U. S. Supreme Court has been asked to review two Lambda Legal cases:
The first so-called DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is Golinski vs.OPM. Lambda Legal represents Karen Golinski, a lesbian federal employee who had been denied equal health insurance benefits for her spouse. The Department of Justice filed papers seeking Supreme Court review.
Lambda Legal won its case challenging Section 3 (DOMA) in federal district court and is now waiting for the Ninth Circuit Court appeal to make its pending decision. The Department of Justice is also asking the Court to review a separate DOMA challenge, Gill vs.OPM.
Diaz vs.Brewer is Lambda Legals' case defending family health coverage for gay and lesbian employees of the State of Arizona. This case is a matter of equal pay for equal work and protecting medical benefits for the same-sex domestic partners of state employees. The federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have already ruled that trying to take away this family health coverage violated the rights of these employees who deserve to be treated the same as other state employees. Governor Jan Brewer and other state officials have now appealed these losses to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the Court refuses to hear the case then the preliminary injunction that currently protects state employees will stand and maintain for the case's duration the health coverage they rely on to safeguard their families' health. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, Lambda Legal will defend the lower-court's decisions for the workers and their families.
Lambda Legal is also involved in two other cutting edge cases. One champions the legal interests of people with HIV and has the potential to save the lives of many people living with HIV and end the AIDS crisis in this county by expanding Medicaid in all states so most low-income people, especially those with HIV, can get the health care they need.
Lambda Legal is also involved in a friend-of-the-court brief in the constitutional challenge to Arizona's discriminatory anti-immigration law. The lawyers of Lambda Law are making a strong case for equality. Equality for gays and lesbians is moving history forward at an astonishing speed. All of these issues are going to be watched closely by the gay and lesbian community as our human rights move closer and closer toward equality.
