U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who is the only judge assigned to the Amarillo Division of the Northern District of Texas and is among the most anti-LGBTQ judges in the nation, issued a ruling on September 21 denying a preliminary injunction to a student organization that was prohibited by Walter Wendler, the President of West Texas A&M University (WT), from holding a planned drag show on the WT campus intended to … <Read More>
Federal Court Finds City of East Lansing Violated Free Exercise Right of Farmer Excluded from City’s Farmer Market Because His Wedding Rental Business Excludes Same-Sex Couples
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney granted summary judgment after a bench trial to Country Mill Farms (CMF) and its owner, Stephen Tennes, in their First Amendment Free Exercise lawsuit against the City of East Lansing, Michigan, which excluded CMF from the East Lansing Farmers Market (ELFM) because the company’s wedding hosting business was closed to same-sex couples. Country Mill Farms, LLC v. City of East Lansing, 2023 WL 5345236, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … <Read More>
Federal Appeals Court Approves Preliminary Injunction Blocking Idaho Ban on Trans Women Participating in Women’s Sports
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction that Idaho Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye issued several years ago blocking the implementation of Idaho’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which was enacted in 2020. Hecox v. Little, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 21541, 2023 WL 5283127 (August 17, 2023). Judge Nye has yet to issue a final ruling on the merits … <Read More>
Appeals Court Vacates Preliminary Injunction Against Alabama’s Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an order on August 21 vacating the preliminary injunction that District Judge Liles C. Burke had issued in May 2022 to temporarily blocked the enforcement of that portion of Alabama’s “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act” that makes it a crime to provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to persons under the age of 19 for purposes of confirming their transgender identity. … <Read More>
Michigan Supreme Court Extends Equitable-Parent Doctrine to Same-Sex Couples
A divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled on July 24 that the “equitable-parent doctrine” should be extended to allow standing for a same-sex partner to seek custody of a child conceived and born before the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Pueblo v. Haas, 2023 WL 4717119, 2023 Mich. LEXIS 1124. However, to qualify for standing, the claimant will … <Read More>
6th Circuit Panel Stays Preliminary Injunction in Tennessee Gender-Affirming Care Case
For the first time, federal judges have suggested that constitutional challenges to state laws banning gender-affirming care for minors are unlikely to succeed, and have stayed a preliminary injunction that was issued by the district court on June 28 against operation of Tennessee’s law. The case is LW. V. Skrmetti, No. 23-5600 (6th Cir.). The state’s request to the trial judge to stay his preliminary injunction pending an appeal had been denied by that … <Read More>
Trump-Appointed Judge Blocks Enforcement of Indiana Law Against Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
Earlier this year Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed into law Senate Enrolled Act 480 (SEA 480), which, effective July 1, 2023, would prohibit health care practitioners from proving gender-affirming procedures to minors, and from “aiding or abetting” another health care provider in providing such care to minors.
The procedures covered by the law are puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical alteration, and “aiding and abetting” would include assisting in treatment or making referrals. These procedures … <Read More>
Federal Judge Slams Tennessee Anti-Drag-Show Law
U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Parker, who was appointed to the Western District of Tennessee bench by President Donald J. Trump, issued a ruling on June 2 holding that Tennessee’s recently adopted “Adult Entertainment Act” (AEA), which was intended to restrict drag shows, violates the First Amendment. Judge Parker previously issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) in March to stop the law from going into effect before he could rule on the merits of the … <Read More>
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Constructive Discharge of Teacher Who Mis-Gendered Trans Students
A three judge panel of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled on April 7 that the Brownsburg (Indiana) Community School Corporation did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it told a music teacher at the district’s high school that if he refused to comply with the district’s policy regarding names and pronouns for transgender students he should quit or would be fired. Kluge … <Read More>
Alliance Defending Freedom Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in West Virginia Transgender Sports Case
Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative religious litigation group, representing as intervening defendant a cisgender girl who claims it is unfair to require her to compete in track and field against a transgender girl, applied to the Supreme Court to reverse an order by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing B.P.J., a transgender girl, to continue competing while the court of appeals considers her appeal of an adverse ruling by … <Read More>