Featured Cases
Making history for marriage equality in South Carolina
Seven months before the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed marriage equality nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges, South Carolina became the 35th state to recognize same-sex marriage. Burnette Shutt & McDaniel is proud that the firm helped lead the way.
Firm co-founders Malissa Burnette and Nekki Shutt served as lead counsel representing Colleen Therese Condon and Anne Nichols Bleckley. The South Carolina couple challenged the state’s same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional. Their determination in bringing that lawsuit, and in refusing to take “no” for an answer, helped change the lives of thousands of South Carolinians seeking marriage equality.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the couple lacked standing to challenge the state’s refusal to permit same-sex couples to marry. But the couple and Burnette Shutt & McDaniel persisted.
The case found new life in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Mark Gergel ruled on Nov. 12, 2014, that the couple’s challenge was legally valid. Judge Gergel’s decision followed the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Bostic v. Schaefer, which had established that Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban violated the couple’s Fourteenth Amendment Constitutional rights to equal protection under the law. South Carolina appealed that ruling but lost.
The federal court ultimately granted Burnette Shutt & McDaniel more than $68,000 in attorney’s fees. Every dollar of it was donated to SC Equality, the statewide organization dedicated to advancing the civil and human rights of LGBTQ+ South Carolinians.
Burnette Shutt & McDaniel is proud of the role the firm played in this landmark civil rights case — not just as attorneys, but also as advocates who believe that equal justice under law means exactly what it says.
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