Kramer Levin Helps Reverse State Policy on Recognition of Valid Marriages of Same-Sex Couples

The New York State Department of Civil Service (DCS) has reversed its policy denying recognition to the marriages of same-sex couples entered into in other jurisdictions, directing that such marriages be respected for purposes of providing insurance coverage to public employees covered by the New York State Health Insurance Plan (NYSHIP). The change in policy affects employees of more than 800 public employers across the State. The prior policy was challenged in a suit brought by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Kramer Levin on behalf of a retired Nassau County schoolteacher who married his partner of 43 years in Canada but was denied the spousal health insurance benefits to which he was entitled. The school district and DCS took this position even though the state Attorney General, Comptroller, and other public officials and private entities throughout the state had recognized New York’s long-standing legal rule that a marriage valid in the jurisdiction where it was celebrated should be respected in New York. Ignoring this rule, a Nassau County Supreme Court Justice rejected the challenge in July 2006, but that decision remains on appeal. The change in policy, in part in reaction to the suit, follows the election of Governor Eliot Spitzer, who as attorney general had agreed with plaintiff's position and declined to defend the DCS policy. Governor Spitzer simultaneously introduced a bill to provide full civil marriage equality for same-sex couples in New York, which would reverse the exclusion upheld last year in Hernandez v. Robles, another case brought by Lambda Legal and Kramer Levin. Partners Jeff Trachtman and Norm Simon, and associates Darren Cohen, Aaron Fleisher, Michael Eisenkraft and Adina Levine are currently working with Lambda Legal on its marriage equality matters in New York.