What will KentuckyOne Health and other employers do?
For a single day following Judge G. Heyburn’s historic court order requiring Kentucky to recognize legal same-sex marriages from out-of-state, such couples were legally able to do things that many of us take for granted such as changing names on drivers licenses. Sadly, there are reports that despite having two weeks to prepare, some clerks turned people away yet again. Confusion about what to do seemed the socially acceptable and perhaps even understandable excuse. This was the justification offered by the Attorney General’s office in requesting a 90-day stay of the Judge’s order so that the Commonwealth could prepare for an orderly implementation of the new law, and to minimize confusion.
The Judge balanced the lack of any strong argument that the Commonwealth would be harmed by moving forward, against the further injustice of enforcing unconstitutional policy. He may also have been influenced by information presented at Friday’s hearing that some married couples would in fact be harmed by a further 90-day interval. In the end, Judge Heyburn stayed his order of February 27 for 20 days until March 20 to allow the state “proper time to administratively prepare for compliance with the Order.”
Will or won’t the Commonwealth appeal?
A decision of whether or not the Commonwealth will appeal the underlying Order within the allowable 30 days will apparently be made soon. The basis for such an appeal would likely be that the Attorney General has a responsibility to enforce state laws and policy. Of course that is a justification used in the past to suppress the civil rights of minorities. I believe that our Governor and Attorney General will not appeal, even without the cover provided by the United States Attorney General advising that states’ Attorneys General need not defend unconstitutional laws, or last June’s US Supreme Court’s United States v. Windsor decision that turned gay-rights marriage law on its head. This high-drama matter will play out in Kentucky and several other states as it will. In the meanwhile, it is not only the Commonwealth of Kentucky that must prepare for compliance with the new law, but other public and private institutions that have used Defense of Marriage- type laws to support their choice not to recognize legal same-sex marriages. I predict much squawking and maneuvering to avoid doing the right thing as occurred following other civil rights actions in the past.
Here in Kentucky, one of the most prominent actors who will have to change their spots is KentuckyOne Health, the hospital corporation that manages several facilities around the state including in Louisville: Jewish, Sts’ Mary and Elisabeth, Our Lady of Peace, and the University of Louisville Hospitals. Currently in these hospitals, the legal marriages of same-sex families are not recognized for the purposes of employee healthcare and other benefits. In the case of University Hospital, and following the directives of its Catholic parent company, benefits that same-sex partners earned from the previous manager of the hospital were taken away by KentuckyOne Health.
What will KentuckyOne Health do? What should it do? Continue reading “Recognition of Legal Same-Sex Marriages Now [Briefly] the Law in Kentucky.”
