NC can't bar same-sex couples from domestic violence protection, state's top court says [View all]
RALEIGH -- The state’s highest court ruled Friday that victims of domestic violence in same-sex relationships can obtain emergency restraining orders, nullifying a law that made North Carolina the only state in the nation that lacked such protections.
As written, the state law allows same-sex couples to seek domestic violence protection orders only if they’re married or divorced. The N.C. Supreme Court’s decision, though, upholds a 2020 appeals court ruling where judges declared that the measure violates the state constitution’s guarantee to equal protection under the law.
The high court’s ruling ends, once and for all, North Carolina’s status as the only state in the country that prevented victims of domestic violence in unmarried same-sex relationships from obtaining protective orders.
The case reached the N.C. Supreme Court years after a breakup and domestic dispute between two women listed in court filings only by their initials. The plaintiff, known only as “M.E.”, appealed after a Wake County district court ruled she was ineligible for a domestic violence protection order because the couple had never been married and were in a same-sex relationship.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article259308169.html
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