Court Cases

In an important victory in our JK v. HK case, the Hawai'i Supreme Court held that an unmarried woman who is not the biological parent of a child can still establish parental rights by holding out the child as her own. A lower court had previously decided that this standard only applied to unmarried men, but not to unmarried women in the identical situation. This issue primarily comes up in situations like that of our client involving an unmarried same-sex couple who are co-parenting a child. This ruling is a major win for LGBTQ couples in Hawai'i and is a necessary clarification of the law.

This lawsuit, brought on behalf of a Maui family, challenges Maui Preparatory Academy’s (“Maui Prep”) discriminatory policy targeting transgender students. Under Maui Prep’s new policy, transgender students are no longer allowed to use facilities, play on sports teams, or room with students of the same gender. Plaintiffs argue that the school violated Hawaiʻi anti-discrimination law and engaged in unfair and deceptive practices by implementing the policy.