Arlington County v. White
| Arlington County v. White | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Court | Supreme Court of Virginia |
| Full case name | Arlington County, et al. v. Andrew White, et al. |
| Decided | April 21 2000 |
| Citation(s) | 259 Va. 708; 528 S.E.2d 706; 2000 Va. LEXIS 71; 24 Employee Benefits Cas. (BNA) 1504 |
| Case history | |
| Prior action(s) | Summary judgment granted to plaintiffs, Arlington County Circuit Court |
| Holding | |
| The county government exceeded its state-granted power to provide benefits to its employees by expanding the definition of covered dependents to include unmarried partners. Arlington County Circuit Court affirmed. | |
| Court membership | |
| Chief Judge | Harry L. Carrico |
| Associate Judges | Elizabeth B. Lacy, Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr., Barbara Milano Keenan, Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr., and Cynthia D. Kinser, Senior Justice Asbury Christian Compton |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Koontz, joined by Lacy, Keenan, Koontz, Kinser |
| Concurrence | Kinser |
| Concur/dissent | Hassell , joined by Carrico, Compton |
| Laws applied | |
| Va. Code §§ 15.1-1517(A), 51.1-801 | |
Arlington County v. White, 528 S.E.2d 706 (Va. 2000), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of Virginia that prohibited the local government of Arlington County from expanding its employee health insurance benefits beyond spouses or financial dependents. Though the issue was resolved as a question of local government power and statutory interpretation, the ruling was a setback for gay rights activists who had long sought benefits for domestic partners and who are prohibited from marrying under the state constitution. The partial dissent by Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. accused the County of using the health care expansion as a disguised attempt to legitimize same-sex unions, and argued that the state public policy against homosexual unions should have dictated the outcome rather than the narrower statutory interpretation relied upon by the majority.
Counties in Virginia were authorized by state law to provide self-funded health care benefits to county employees and their dependents. However, the two authorizing statutes did not define "dependent" or adopt a definition from elsewhere in the Virginia Code.
In May, 1997, the government of Arlington County announced that the definition of eligible dependents under the County's employee health plan would be expanded to include one adult dependent, who could be the employee's spouse, domestic partner, or any other adult who was claimed as a dependent on the employee's federal income tax return. The County listed eight criteria for qualifying adult dependents: someone who "has resided with the employee for a 1 year period; shares with the employee the common necessities of life and basic living expenses; is financially interdependent with the employee; is involved with the employee in a mutually exclusive relationship of support and commitment; is not related by blood to the employee; is not married to anyone; was mentally competent at time of consent to relationship; is 18 years of age or older." Same-sex as well as opposite-sex domestic partners of County employees were subsequently covered by the expanded health care benefits.
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