Location
Bell Jones Courtroom, Mercer University School of Law
Start Date
24-10-2025 9:15 AM
End Date
24-10-2025 10:45 AM
Description
The freedom-to-marry movement sparked sometimes unintended reactions, including accelerated legal recognition of nonmarital partners and new, alternative legal institutions, such as domestic partnerships, civil unions, and reciprocal beneficiaries. This panel will likely explore this path and the resilience of these legal innovations for same- and different-sex couples. Obergefell and its progeny, Pavan v. Smith, have also raised family law questions that have yet to be definitively resolved, such as the constitutionality of discrimination in parentage presumptions between same- and different-sex spouses. Finally, the panel might also address possible legal recognition for polyamorous relationships, which have been discussed since Obergefell.
Bonnie Carlson is Director of Experiential Education and an Associate Professor of Law at the Mercer University School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty at Mercer University, Professor Carlson was a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Domestic Violence Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. In that position, she co-taught the clinic seminar and supervised clinic students in their representation of domestic violence victims in Civil Protection Order litigation. Prior to working at Georgetown, Professor Carlson was a Training and Technical Assistance Staff Attorney with the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence (ABA CDSV). In that position, she wrote training curricula and publications for attorneys practicing domestic violence law around the country. Prior to this position at the ABA CDSV, she was a family law staff attorney for the Alexandria office of Legal Services of Northern Virginia for four years representing victims of domestic violence. Professor Carlson graduated from the University of Virginia and received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Jessica Feinberg is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Maine School of Law. Before law school, Professor Feinberg served as a Fellow and organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York. After graduating, Feinberg clerked for Judge Michael R. Murphy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She has since worked as a professor at DePaul University College of Law, Tulane University Law School, Mercer University School of Law, and the University of Maine School of Law, focusing her scholarship on family law’s intersection with sexuality, sexuality orientation, and gender norms. During her time at Mercer Law, Feinberg served as Faculty Advisor for the School of Law’s OUTlaw chapter and Chair of the School’s Diversity Committee. Professor Feinberg is currently drafting an article that explores whether laws that punish nonmonogamous conduct by married individuals without regard to whether the spouses have agreed to a consensually nonmonogamous marriage structure violate the fundamental constitutional right to marital privacy. Professor Feinberg graduated magna cum laude from Boston University and received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Washington University School of Law.
Tanya Washington, a native of the city that bears her last name, is a professor of children's constitutional rights at Georgia State University College of Law and holds the Marjorie F. Knowles Chair in Law. Professor Washington earned her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law, and she completed two fellowships and earned her LLM from Harvard Law School. She has taught Family Law, Civil Procedure, and Education Law at Georgia State for the past 22 years. Her research and scholarship focus on children’s constitutional rights in families, in the child regulation system, and in public schools. Professor Washington’s articles have been published in law journals across the nation, including: the Harvard Journal for Race and Ethnic Justice, the Indiana Law Review, the Iowa Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, the Utah Law Review,the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. Her many co-authored amicus briefs filed in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, highlighted the harmful impact of exclusionary marriage laws on children in same-sex families and they challenged states’ characterization of these laws as child welfare measures. Professor Washington’s co-authored brief in Obergefell v. Hodges was cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. In 2023, Professor Washington was awarded a $2.1 million grant to support her collaborative research, scholarship, and advocacy efforts to center children’s constitutional rights across a continuum of contexts.
Marcia Zug is the Miles and Ann Loadholt Professor of Family Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where her teaching and scholarship has focused on family law, non-traditional family structures, immigration law, indigenous rights, and sex discrimination. Professor Zug clerked after law school for Judge Dolores Sloviter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before working as an associate at Steptoe & Johnson. Professor Zug graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School. Zug was also a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Canberra in Australia.
Recommended Citation
Feinberg, Jessica; Washington, Tanya Monique; and Zug, Marcia A., "The Family Law Legacy of the Freedom-to-Marry Movement - Moderator: Bonnie Carlson" (2025). Mercer Law Review Symposium. 2.
https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/symposium/freedom_to_marry/friday/2
Included in
Constitutional Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons
The Family Law Legacy of the Freedom-to-Marry Movement - Moderator: Bonnie Carlson
Bell Jones Courtroom, Mercer University School of Law
The freedom-to-marry movement sparked sometimes unintended reactions, including accelerated legal recognition of nonmarital partners and new, alternative legal institutions, such as domestic partnerships, civil unions, and reciprocal beneficiaries. This panel will likely explore this path and the resilience of these legal innovations for same- and different-sex couples. Obergefell and its progeny, Pavan v. Smith, have also raised family law questions that have yet to be definitively resolved, such as the constitutionality of discrimination in parentage presumptions between same- and different-sex spouses. Finally, the panel might also address possible legal recognition for polyamorous relationships, which have been discussed since Obergefell.
Bonnie Carlson is Director of Experiential Education and an Associate Professor of Law at the Mercer University School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty at Mercer University, Professor Carlson was a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Domestic Violence Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. In that position, she co-taught the clinic seminar and supervised clinic students in their representation of domestic violence victims in Civil Protection Order litigation. Prior to working at Georgetown, Professor Carlson was a Training and Technical Assistance Staff Attorney with the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence (ABA CDSV). In that position, she wrote training curricula and publications for attorneys practicing domestic violence law around the country. Prior to this position at the ABA CDSV, she was a family law staff attorney for the Alexandria office of Legal Services of Northern Virginia for four years representing victims of domestic violence. Professor Carlson graduated from the University of Virginia and received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Jessica Feinberg is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Maine School of Law. Before law school, Professor Feinberg served as a Fellow and organizer for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York. After graduating, Feinberg clerked for Judge Michael R. Murphy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She has since worked as a professor at DePaul University College of Law, Tulane University Law School, Mercer University School of Law, and the University of Maine School of Law, focusing her scholarship on family law’s intersection with sexuality, sexuality orientation, and gender norms. During her time at Mercer Law, Feinberg served as Faculty Advisor for the School of Law’s OUTlaw chapter and Chair of the School’s Diversity Committee. Professor Feinberg is currently drafting an article that explores whether laws that punish nonmonogamous conduct by married individuals without regard to whether the spouses have agreed to a consensually nonmonogamous marriage structure violate the fundamental constitutional right to marital privacy. Professor Feinberg graduated magna cum laude from Boston University and received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Washington University School of Law.
Tanya Washington, a native of the city that bears her last name, is a professor of children's constitutional rights at Georgia State University College of Law and holds the Marjorie F. Knowles Chair in Law. Professor Washington earned her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law, and she completed two fellowships and earned her LLM from Harvard Law School. She has taught Family Law, Civil Procedure, and Education Law at Georgia State for the past 22 years. Her research and scholarship focus on children’s constitutional rights in families, in the child regulation system, and in public schools. Professor Washington’s articles have been published in law journals across the nation, including: the Harvard Journal for Race and Ethnic Justice, the Indiana Law Review, the Iowa Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, the Utah Law Review,the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and the George Mason University Civil Rights Law Journal. Her many co-authored amicus briefs filed in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, highlighted the harmful impact of exclusionary marriage laws on children in same-sex families and they challenged states’ characterization of these laws as child welfare measures. Professor Washington’s co-authored brief in Obergefell v. Hodges was cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion. In 2023, Professor Washington was awarded a $2.1 million grant to support her collaborative research, scholarship, and advocacy efforts to center children’s constitutional rights across a continuum of contexts.
Marcia Zug is the Miles and Ann Loadholt Professor of Family Law at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where her teaching and scholarship has focused on family law, non-traditional family structures, immigration law, indigenous rights, and sex discrimination. Professor Zug clerked after law school for Judge Dolores Sloviter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before working as an associate at Steptoe & Johnson. Professor Zug graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College and received her J.D. from Yale Law School. Zug was also a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Canberra in Australia.