The case of Indonesian citizen Handi Lui and American Michael Ernest has been dismissed by a federal judge who relied upon a homophobic and outdated court ruling from 1982 rather than contemporary information regarding same-sex marriage.
Lui and Ernest married in Massachusetts in 2009, and the two sued the government after US Citizenship and Immigration Services denied the couple’s marriage-based petition for permanent residency for Lui. The lawsuit argued that the USCIS violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s wording regarding discrimination on the basis of sex and that the immigration officials interpreted the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.
House Speaker John Boehner’s pet anti-LGBT lawyers moved to dismiss the case. Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed it saying that immigration officials did not err in their decision. The problem is that he went further. He relied upon a 1982 case involving a gay male couple that were denied immigration sponsorship rights. In that case, the rejection of the petition was based upon the fact that the attorneys for the couple had “failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”
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Judge Mary DuFresne dismissed a lawsuit by three Minnesota same-sex couples seeking the right to marry on Tuesday. DuFresne dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning the decision can be appealed. The couples — Duane Gajewski and Doug Benson, Lindzi Campbell and Jesse Dykhuis, John Rittman and Tom Trisko — have vowed to bring their case to a higher court. The case was filed in Minnesota’s Fourth District Court after the couples were denied marriage licenses in Hennepin County in spring 2010.
