Finally, some non-discriminatory news out of Arizona!

AP 7/23/10 – U.S. District Judge John Sedwick issued a preliminary injunction blocking Arizona from implementing a cutoff of domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state employees.

The state is still required to still make family health insurance available to gay and lesbian state employees who have established relationships that meet residency and other standards under state administration rules.

Domestic partner benefits were approved in late 2008 by state officials under rule changes proposed by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano.  But after Napolitano, a Democrat, left office in January 2009, the Republican-led Legislature included the prohibition — which applied to all unmarried couples — in a budget law that Gov. Jan Brewer signed last September.

The preliminary injunction issued Friday by Sedwick only applies to unmarried gay and lesbian state workers, which it called “a small fraction” of the 800 employees who receive domestic-partner benefits.

The prohibition still takes effect Jan. 1 for heterosexual domestic partners.

Sedwick’s 33-page order said heterosexuals may become eligible for family coverage under the state plan by marrying. But because employees in same-sex relationships cannot marry in Arizona, the law “has the effect of completely barring lesbians and gays from receiving family benefits,” Sedwick wrote.

Consequently, the prohibition against domestic-partner benefits “burdens state employees with same-sex domestic partners more than state employees with opposite-sex domestic partners,” denying them “a valuable form of compensation,” Sedwick added.

That leaves the plaintiffs with a good chance of being able to prove at trial that the prohibition violates their rights for equal protection under the law, and they would face irreparable harm in the meantime if the prohibition were allowed to take effect, he said.

Sedwick rejected the state’s arguments that the prohibition was justified by cost savings, administrative efficiency and the state’s interest in favoring marriage and families with children.

He also said the state’s argument that gay and lesbian workers could get coverage elsewhere for their partners amounted to “back of the bus” treatment.

The ruling “removes the sword that’s been hanging over” gay and lesbian state workers, said Tara Borelli, a Lamba Legal attorney who worked on the case.

A big thanks to the Honorable Judge Sedwick!