Recognition of same-sex unions in Hawaii
| Jackson v. Abercrombie | |
|---|---|
| United States District Court for the District of Hawaii | |
| Date decided | August 8, 2012 |
| Citations | 884 F. Supp. 2d 1065 |
| Judge sitting | Alan C. Kay U.S.D.J. |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent actions | Appealed sub. nom. Jackson v. Fuddy, No. 12-16995, 12-16998 (9th Cir.) |
| Case holding | |
| Defendants' motion for summary judgment granted, plaintiff same-sex couples' motion for summary judgement denied; Hawaii's same-sex marriage ban upheld. | |
Same-sex marriage in Hawaii has been legal since December 2, 2013. The Hawaii State Legislature held a special session beginning October 28, 2013, and passed the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act legalizing same-sex marriage. Governor Neil Abercrombie signed the legislation on November 13, and same-sex couples began marrying on December 2. Hawaii also allows both same-sex and opposite-sex couples to formalize their relationships legally in the form of civil unions and reciprocal beneficiary relationships. Civil unions provide the same rights, benefits, and obligations of marriage at the state level, while reciprocal beneficiary relationships provide a more limited set of rights.
Hawaii's denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples was first challenged in state court in 1991, and the plaintiffs initially met with some success. But Hawaii voters modified the state Constitution in 1998 to allow the Legislature to restrict marriage to mixed-sex couples. By the time the Supreme Court of Hawaii considered the final appeal in the case in 1999, it upheld the state's ban on same-sex marriage.
When Hawaii's civil union status took effect at the start of 2012, same-sex marriages established in other jurisdictions were considered civil unions in Hawaii.
Baehr v. Miike (originally Baehr v. Lewin) was a case decided by the Supreme Court of Hawaii, which initially found the state's refusal to grant same-sex couples marriage licenses discriminatory. In 1991, three same-sex couples sued Hawaii Director of Health John C. Lewin in his official capacity, seeking to force the state to issue them marriage licenses. After the case was dismissed by the trial court the couples appealed to the state supreme court. In the plurality opinion delivered by Chief Justice Ronald Moon in 1993, the court ruled that while the right to privacy in the Hawaii state constitution does not include a fundamental right to same-sex marriage, denying marriage to same-sex couples constituted discrimination based on sex in violation of the right to equal protection guaranteed by the state's Constitution. The court remanded the case to the trial court, instructing that "in accordance with the 'strict scrutiny' standard, the burden will rest on Lewin to overcome the presumption that HRS § 572-1 [the state's marriage statute] is unconstitutional by demonstrating that it furthers compelling state interests and is narrowly drawn to avoid unnecessary abridgments of constitutional rights."
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