Also known as: domestic partnerships · domestic partner · domestic partners
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A relationship between two unmarried persons of the same or opposite sex who live together as a couple for a significant period of time. The relationship may be registered with a governmental entity or recognized by an employer to extend benefits otherwise reserved for spouses.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Judge Ramirez and her domestic partner Derek Douglas jointly own shares in Dawson Steel. When Dawson Steel appears as a defendant in a contract dispute before Judge Ramirez, she must disclose the ownership because the partner's economic interest in a party triggers disqualification.
Dorothy Daniels and her domestic partner Dustin Donovan raised Danielle Dixon together. When Dorothy's will creates a class gift to her children, Danielle receives a share even though Dorothy and Dustin never married, because the genetic parent functioned as a parent before majority.
Diana Delgado and Deanna Davenport registered as domestic partners and conceived a child through assisted reproduction. After the relationship ended, the court treated both women as legal parents with equal rights and obligations toward the child under the domestic partnership statutes.
After the state enacted a domestic partnership statute granting same-sex couples many marital rights, opponents placed a referendum on the ballot to repeal it. The Supreme Court later addressed whether the sponsors had standing to defend the law in federal court.
Police arrived at a shared apartment and asked Derek Douglas, the domestic partner of the absent tenant, for permission to search. The court held that Derek's consent was invalid as to areas where the tenant had a reasonable expectation of privacy because the tenant was physically present and objected.
Model Rules treat a judge's domestic partner the same as a spouse when determining whether the judge or household member has an economic interest in a party or the subject matter. The judge must therefore recuse if the partner holds stock or another interest that would require disqualification for a spouse.
Under the Restatement, a nonmarital child is treated as a child of the genetic parent for class gifts created by that parent. The rule applies when the genetic parent or the parent's relatives functioned as a parent before the child reached majority, placing the child on equal footing with marital children absent contrary language in the instrument.
…perceive no reason why both parents of a child cannot be women. That result now is possible under the current version of the domestic partnership statutes, which took effect this year. (§ 297 et seq.) Two women “who have chosen to share one another’s lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring” and have a common…
…propagation of the human race. I disagree. [^disA-10]: I note that a number of municipalities across the country have adopted domestic partnership
…court. The record reflects the following facts, either as found by the trial court or undisputed. The plaintiffs, who were domestic partners
Yes. Once a couple registers as domestic partners and has a child, statutes in states such as California equate the partners' rights and obligations to those of married parents. Courts therefore recognize both partners as legal parents without requiring adoption by the non-biological partner.
Sponsors of a referendum repealing a domestic partnership law may lack Article III standing to defend the statute in federal court once state officials decline to do so. The Supreme Court has held that proponents of the measure do not suffer a particularized injury sufficient to confer standing.
A physically present domestic partner may refuse consent to a search of shared premises. Police may not rely on the consent of the absent partner when the objecting partner is on the scene and expressly withholds permission.