**After this entry was posted, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals in M.E. v. T.J. and left the holding of the Court of Appeals regarding same-sex dating relationships undisturbed. M.E. v. T.J., _ N.C. _ (March 11, 2022), affirming as modified, 275 N.C. App. 528 (2020).
In this post on August 15, 2017, DVPOs for Same-Sex Dating Relationships?, my former colleague Jeff Welty discussed the constitutionality of G.S. 50B-1(b)(6) in light of recent rulings by the United States Supreme Court addressing the rights of same-sex couples and in light of a South Carolina appellate court ruling that providing domestic violence protection to persons in heterosexual dating relationships while denying protection to persons in same-sex dating relationships is unconstitutional. Like the South Carolina statute, N.C.G.S. 50B-1(b)(6) provides that while persons of the opposite sex in a dating relationship are eligible for a DVPO, persons of the same sex in a dating relationship are not eligible for protection. On December 31, 2020, in M.E. v. T.J., the North Carolina Court of Appeals held this provision unconstitutional as applied to deny a plaintiff protection from domestic violence simply because plaintiff and defendant had been in a same-sex dating relationship rather than a heterosexual relationship.
Continue Reading