Amicus Brief in M.E. v. T.J.
On April 12, 2021, the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association (“PMBA”) filed an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the Plaintiff-Appellee, M.E. This brief was filed in conjunction with Legal Aid of North Carolina and the North Carolina Justice Center, together as, Amici. As an affiliate of the National LGBT Bar Association, we are charged with promoting justice in and through the legal profession for the LGBTQ+ community, as such PMBA seeks to prevent discrimination against North Carolina’s LGBTQ+ Citizens.
As her namesake, the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar Association supports the ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny same-gender loving couples the right to obtain a domestic violence protection order, otherwise known as a Rule 50(B). Pauli Murray was a civil rights lawyer, educator, essayist, poet, pastor, and activist, among many other things. Pauli Murray inspired and shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s ruling in the historic 1971 Supreme Court case Reed v. Reed, where the court recognized women as a victim of sex discrimination. The very essence of Pauli Murray’s work embodied equal protections under the law for LGBTQ+ citizens. Under North Carolina law, a person in a same-gender loving dating relationship could not obtain a domestic violence protection order the same as a person in an opposite-gender loving dating relationship. This law violates the lives and safety of those that depend on domestic-violence protective orders.
According to the North Carolina Courts, over thirty-thousand (30,000) victims of domestic violence seek protective orders under Chapter 50B. These victims are often without legal representation while being forced to navigate complex legal systems; and the court should not further complicate these matters by making it difficult for LGBTQ+ North Carolinians to be afforded the same protection. The appellate courts have rightly been sensitive to the procedural pitfalls that come with the territory of seeking a Rule 50B, and we stand by this ruling.
