Also known as: domestic partners · domestic partnership · domestic partnerships · DP · registered domestic partner
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who shares a committed intimate relationship with another without formal marriage. Recognition of the status often extends spousal-equivalent rights or obligations in contexts such as judicial disqualification rules and class-gift construction in donative transfers.
Judge Diane Dawson learns that her domestic partner Darius Dixon holds a substantial ownership stake in Dawson Steel, a defendant in a contract action pending before her. The economic interest of the domestic partner in a party to the proceeding requires the judge to disqualify herself. Dawson therefore steps aside and assigns the matter to another judge.
Demetrius Douglas and Dolores Diaz lived as domestic partners for fifteen years and raised a child together before Douglas died. Douglas's will left the residue to his "children." Because Diaz functioned as a parent before the child reached majority, the child qualifies as a member of the class even though the parents never married.
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David Dawson and Daphne Doyle registered as domestic partners and together conceived twins through assisted reproduction. After separation Dawson refused further support payments. The court held that the domestic partnership created a parental obligation equivalent to that of a spouse, requiring Dawson to continue financial support for the children.
No. Recognition is limited to the specific statutes or rules that expressly include the term. Judicial conduct rules treat a domestic partner like a spouse for recusal purposes, and certain property restatements treat the partner as a spouse for class-gift and adoption purposes, but general marital rights such as intestate succession remain governed by separate state law.
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A judge must make reasonable efforts to learn the personal economic interests of a domestic partner who resides in the household. Failure to do so can trigger disqualification when the partner holds an economic interest in a party or in the subject matter of a proceeding.
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Yes when the genetic parent or the parent's domestic partner functioned as a parent before the child reached majority. The nonmarital child is then included in the class unless the governing instrument shows a contrary intent.
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…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…