State of Wisconsin Wins Same-Sex Benefit Denial
Challenge
June 5, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - While the state of
Wisconsin won a victory in an American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) legal battle over benefits for same-sex partners of
state employees, a state judge used his ruling to assert that
the practice of denying the same-sex benefits is
unconstitutional.
Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan said
despite his belief that the state benefits practice is
not constitutional, he was nonetheless bound by a 1992
state appellate decision upholding their validity.
"This court cannot simply ignore that
precedent and, therefore, must dismiss this action,"
Flanagan wrote, in the 46-page ruling. "But for the
controlling authority (in the earlier case), however,
this court would find that the plaintiffs have proven
that the state law provisions which preclude equal
treatment as to sick leave, health insurance and family
leave deny to the plaintiffs equal protection of law and,
thus, are in violation of Article 1, Section 1 of the
Wisconsin Constitution."
"Losing doesn't get any better than
this," said Larry Dupuis, Litigation Director of the
ACLU, in a news release about Flanagan's ruling. "We
knew we had an uphill battle in the trial court because
of the earlier case. But the court agreed with us that
discrimination based on sexual orientation should be
subject to strict judicial review and that it is
unconstitutional for the state to deny equal
benefits."
According to the ACLU news release, it filed the
lawsuit in April 2005 on behalf of six lesbian state
employees and their partners, alleging it was a violation
of the state's equal protection guarantees to
deny homosexual state employees access to the same
health insurance and family leave protections that it
provides to heterosexual employees who are able to
cover their spouses.
More information about
Dunnum v. Department of Employee Trust Funds
is available
here
.
Fred Schneyer
editors@plansponsor.com