New York Divorce Report - New York's Divorce and Family Law Blog

It was been an interesting week in family law practice, which I thought I note before taking a few days off with my family .  In the same week Governor Paterson announced that he was introducing legislation to recognize same sex marriage, a couple decisions involving the custody rights of same sex marriages were announced.   In the first, Debra H. v. Janice R., the Appellate Division, First Department, held that the same sex partner of a woman who gave birth did not have standing to assert parental rights after the parties broke up.   The Court ruled that although Debra H.,... More

Mildred Loving,, who successfully challenged Virginia’s law that barred inter-racial marriage died this week. In the landmark case Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court unanimously struck down Virginia’s miscegenation law as it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Mrs. Loving’s obituary in the New York Times presents a haunting account of her case, her life and the cruel effects of the miscegenation laws: By their own widely reported accounts, Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, were in bed in their modest house in Central Point in the early morning of July 11, 1958, five weeks after... More