Win one for the gay guys!
This just in from the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers San Diego: Appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt has ruled that the federal government must compensate federal public defender Brad Levenson and his husband, Tony Sears, for denial of spousal benefits.
Here’s the opinion.
In a previous ruling, the judge had found the denial equaled discrimination and ordered the Administrative Office of the Courts to file the forms to get Sears covered. However, the Office of Personnel Management subsequently “intervened to prevent enrollment.”
Levenson and Sears were married in 2008 and, in their filing, they asked the judge to require the public defender’s office to negotiate with private insurers to get them coverage similar to what’s available in the federal plan. The judge rejected this request and instead went for Levenson’s alternative option: compensation by way of “back pay.”
Here’s more from the LA Times, which moved a story as I was typing.
