A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has remanded to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) for reconsideration a claim for relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) by a gay man from Jamaica who was subject to deportation based on some state law convictions in Connecticut. Walker v. Lynch, 2016 WL 4191844, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 14554 (August 9, 2016). The panel, consisting of Circuit Judges … <Read More>
Legal Issues
Supreme Court Stays Injunction against Gloucester School District in Transgender Restroom Case
On August 3 the U.S. Supreme Court granted an application by the Gloucester (Virginia) County School Board to stay a preliminary injunction that had been issued by U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar (E.D. Va.) on June 23; see 2016 WL 3581852. Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., 136 S.Ct. 2442 (No. 16A52), granting stay. The injunction ordered the school board to allow Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy, to use the boys’ restroom facilities at … <Read More>
7th Circuit Panel Rejects Lesbian Professor’s Title VII Claim
A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled on July 28 that a lesbian professor could not sue the local community college in South Bend, Indiana, for sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, rejecting her argument that anti-gay discrimination is a form of sex discrimination in violation of that law. Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, 2016 U.S. App. … <Read More>
9th Circuit Denies On-Line Newspaper’s Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Porn Star’s Libel & False Light Lawsuit
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed a decision by District Judge George H. Wu to deny an anti-SLAPP motion by Associated Newspapers LTD, publishers of Daily Mail Online, which is being sued by “Danni Ashe,” a straight porn diva whose real name is Leah Manzari, over the use of her picture to illustrate an article about HIV in the porn industry. Manzari v. Associated Newspapers … <Read More>
Kansas’ Narrow Interpretation of Obergefell Rejected by Federal District Court
U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree, who had ruled on November 4, 2014, that the Kansas constitutional amendment and statutes banning same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, has issued a final ruling in that case, Marie v. Mosier, 2016 WL 3951744 (D. Kan., July 22, 2016), effectively finding that Kansas officials cannot be trusted to comply voluntarily with the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015), without the … <Read More>
Colorado Wedding Cake Baker Seeks Supreme Court Review of State Court Discrimination Ruling
On July 22, 2016, Jack C. Phillips, proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., a Colorado business, filed a Petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Colorado Court of Appeals decision rendered on August 13, 2015, which rejected his appeal of a ruling by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that Phillips and his business had violated Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) by declining service to a gay male couple seeking to purchase an appropriately-decorated cake … <Read More>
Massachusetts Appeals Court Vacates Statutory Rape Conviction Because of Improper Admission of Gay Porn in Evidence
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts ruled in Commonwealth v. Christie, 2016 WL 3581839, 2016 Mass. App. LEXIS 79 (July 6, 2016), that the conviction of a man on charges of statutory rape, indecent assault and battery on a boy had to be reversed because of improper evidence based on the defendant’s possession of videos depicting “generic same-sex sex” involving adults. At the same time, the court affirmed the defendant’s conviction on a charge of … <Read More>
Maryland High Court Adopts De Facto Parent Standing for Lesbian Co-Parents
Overruling a 2008 precedent and reversing lower court decisions in this case, the Court of Appeals of Maryland, that state’s highest court, ruled on July 7 that the same-sex spouse of a birth mother, who gave birth to their child shortly before they were married, has standing as a “de facto parent” to pursue custody and visitation in the context of their present divorce proceeding, even though she never adopted the child. Conover v. … <Read More>
Michigan Appeals Court Rejects Lesbian Co-Parent Standing in Visitation Suit
A unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals of Michigan ruled on July 5 that Michelle Lake, a lesbian co-parent, lacked standing to seek “parenting time” with the biological child of her former same-sex partner, Kerri Putnam. Reversing a decision to award parenting time by the Washtenaw Circuit Court in Lake v. Putnam, 2016 Mich. App. LEXIS 1297, 2016 WL 3606081, the appeals court held that the co-parent was a mere “third party” who … <Read More>
Federal Court Agrees to Let VAWA Funding in North Carolina to Continue During Pendency of H.B. 2 Lawsuit
When the Justice Department filed suit against North Carolina for a declaration that H.B.2’s bathroom provision violates the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), it put into play a provision of that statute, 42 U.S.C. sec. 13925(b)(13)(c), which provides that upon the filing of a civil action “alleging a pattern or practice of discriminatory conduct on the basis of sex in any program or activity of a State government or unit of local government which receives … <Read More>