Domestic-Partner Benefits Unconstitutional

Kentucky’s attorney general, Gregory D. Stumbo, issued a formal opinion earlier this week saying that the new plan at the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky to provide health-insurance benefits for their employees’ unmarried domestic partners violates a 2004 marriage amendment to the state’s Constitution. The opinion, however, offers a possible legal solution: Extend benefits to anyone within an employee’s household.

See a recent item on The Chronicle’s News Blog for more details.

Of course, Kentucky is only the latest state to deny health benefits to same-sex partners. In February, The Chronicle reported on a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling prohibiting state agencies and universities from offering health insurance to same-sex partners because it would violate Michigan’s state marriage amendment. The case is pending in the Michigan Supreme Court, and the University of Michigan continues to provide benefits to domestic partners of its employees in the meantime.

But a blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy observes this week that one city in Michigan has already decided to withdraw the benefits it previously provided.