It's a week for giving thanks. So that's what I'll do, which means that posting may be a little light this week.
But Margaret Fonberg gets to give thanks early. She's a career law clerk for a magistrate judge in Oregon. In 2009, she attempted to get benefits for her same-sex domestic partner, but was denied by OPM. She claimed that OPM's policy violated her constitutional rights.
Her case has a unique procedural posture since she's "internal" to the court system. But after going to the chief judge for the District of Oregon, it ends up in the Ninth Circuit's Executive Committee. Which holds today -- following Windsor -- that it's unconstitutional to deny same-sex domestic partners equal benefits.
So Fonberg gets back pay of around six grand.
Happy Thanksgiving.
