May 4, 2004

Court Upholds Portland’s Domestic Partnership Ordinance

Maine Trial Court Upholds Portland's Domestic Partnership Ordinance Despite Challenge

(Portland, ME) Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Thomas Humphrey recently ruled in favor of The City of Portland, represented by Mittel Asen, a Portland-based law firm, and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), a New England legal rights organization, in a lawsuit challenging the City’s authority to provide municipal domestic partnership benefits under its domestic partnership ordinance. Two anti-gay organizations, The Center for Marriage Law and the Alliance Defense Fund Law Center, along with approximately a dozen Portland citizens filed suit against the City of Portland claiming that Maine’s anti-gay marriage restriction and its general authority to regulate marriage prevented the City from providing municipal benefits to committed, unmarried families living and working in the City.

“We celebrate and hail the court’s decision and its recognition that municipalities can take sensible and fair steps to make life better and more fair for its unmarried citizens and employees,” said Robert Mittel, attorney with Mittel Asen.

“The City of Portland cannot change the fact that the State of Maine continues to deny marriage rights to committed gay and lesbian families,“said Michele Granda, attorney with GLAD. “But the City can rightfully provide a safety net of municipal benefits - including health insurance, family leave, and family discounts to its own employees, and encourage other employers to do the same.”

“The city is extremely pleased with Justice Humphrey’s well reasoned and thorough opinion,” said Gary Wood, city attorney. “It reaffirms local control and home rule for Maine municipalities. It recognizes that municipalities are different and leaves each municipality free to make decisions that are in the best interest of its citizens without imposing those decisions on other municipalities.”

In its decision, the court recognizes that the Maine Legislature’s enactment of a ban on the marriage of same-sex couples, generally known as the “Defense of Marriage Act” or “DOMA,” did not “expressly bar the domestic partnership ordinance.” The court states that “these [DOMA] statutes were not designed to preclude state and local efforts to protect the health, safety and welfare of Maine citizens through the allocation of government benefits.” The court goes on to recognize that “the rights and benefits afforded to domestic partners under the ‘DP Ordinance’ are also far fewer than the benefits afforded to married couples.”

In June, 2001, the City of Portland enacted an ordinance providing domestic partnership benefits to Portland’s citizens and employees, as well as to the employees of community organizations receiving grants from the City. The limited benefits included health coverage for partners, bereavement and sick leave to care for a partner or his or her child, and family discounts rates at the City’s golf course and other City programs. Pulsifer et al. vs. City of Portland (Docket CV-03-448) was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court in August 2003. Oral argument on the parties’ motion for summary judgment in Superior Court was held on March 23, 2004, and the Court granted summary judgment on all counts in favor of the City of Portland on April 28, 2004.

“The city also wants to express its thanks to Michele Granda of GLAD, who was the lead attorney in the case, and Robert Mittel of Mittel and Asen, both of whom spent many hours to help the city defend this law and its legal right to create and pass such laws,” added Wood.

This decision comes one week after Maine’s governor, John Baldacci, took steps to create equal civil rights for all its citizens. Baldacci signed a bill creating domestic partnerships for heterosexual or gay and lesbian adults who live together under long-term arrangements. The new law also gives domestic partners the same inheritance rights as a spouse when a married partner dies without a will and allows a surviving domestic partner to make funeral and burial arrangements.