North Dakota same-sex marriage ban challenged News
North Dakota same-sex marriage ban challenged

[JURIST] Seven couples have filed a lawsuit [text] to the United States District Court of North Dakota [official website] on Friday in an effort to challenge North Dakota’s same-sex marriage ban. Some of the claims within the suit state that North Dakota’s Constitution enactment banning same-sex marriage violates the equal protection, due process and right-to-travel clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment [text] to the US Constitution. North Dakota’s same sex marriage ban is currently the last to be challenged within the federal court system of the United States. The lawsuit joins the many within the nation in response to the US Supreme Court striking down [JURIST report] Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive] last June. North Dakota’s first openly gay state legislator, Josh Boschee, [official website] commented on the lawsuit stating, “I think it shows that there’s agreement in all 50 states that current law is unfair to lesbian and gay families.”

Same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] is one of the most controversial topics facing the legal community in America today. In May six couples filed a federal lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging South Dakota’s ban on same-sex marriage. That same day the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana filed a complaint [JURIST report] reviving a challenge to the state’s same-sex marriage ban that was dismissed in December 2012. Also in May a judge for Arkansas’ Pulaski County Circuit Court ruled [JURIST report] that the state ban on court clerks issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. Earlier last month five same-sex couples challenged [JURIST report] Alaska’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

On November 27, 1983, the revised Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church went into effect. Learn more about the history of Canon Law from Professor Kenneth Pennington of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.

Alfred Nobel creates Nobel Prize in his will

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his will, creating the Nobel Prize. Learn more about the history of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Commission.