Legal Issues

Federal Judge Agrees With EEOC that Sexual Orientation Discrimination is Actionable under Title VII

At last, a federal district judge has expressly relied on the EEOC’s ruling from July 2015 that sexual orientation discrimination claims can be brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama, rejecting the recommendation of a U.S. Magistrate Judge that a sexual orientation discrimination complaint under Title VII be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, determined that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission … <Read More>

Civil Rights Through Administrative Action: Can It Be Effective?

When legislatures refuse to act on proposals to protect LGBT people from discrimination, can civil rights agencies and executive officials just go ahead and extend the protection on their own?  Some recent events put this question sharply into play.

In July 2014, President Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to adopt policies banning discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity and extending protection against gender identity discrimination to applicants and employees in … <Read More>

Same Old, Same Old from Florida Court of Appeal on Co-Parent Standing

Winning marriage equality nationwide (including in Florida) was cause for celebration this year, but it did not necessarily cure the legal problems of same-sex co-parents who had not previously been able to marry, as shown by an October 14 ruling by the Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal, which ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit by a woman seeking to restore contact with children she was raising with her former partner.  Russell v. Pasik, 2015 … <Read More>

Implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act: Progress in Maryland for Transgender Inmates

Stephen T. Moyer, the Secretary of the Maryland Division of Public Safety and Correction Services, has accepted most of the recommendations by Administrative Law Judge Denise Oakes Shaffer, requiring the Division to implement key elements of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal statute whose regulations address important issues concerning appropriate treatment for transgender inmates.  Moyer’s August 17 action, responding to Judge Shaffer’s April 1, 2015, decision on the grievance filed by inmate Neon Brown, … <Read More>

NYLS Impact Center Salon on Transgender Issues

The New York Law School Impact Center is presenting a Salon on Transgender Issue on Tuesday, September 29.  I am participating together with attorneys M. Dru Levasseur of Lambda Legal and Ezra Young.  I prepared a case table on transgender law for distribution at the event and am sharing it here:

Selected Legal Decisions on Transgender Issues

Prepared by Arthur Leonard for NLYS Impact Center Salon, September 29, 2015.

Criminal Law:

City of Chicago v. … <Read More>

New York Court Rules for Former Domestic Partner in Tenant Succession Case; Implies Retroactive Application of Obergefell v. Hodges

 

Justice Maria Milin of New York County Supreme Court ruled against a landlord who was seeking to evict the former domestic partner of a tenant from a rent stabilized apartment in Manhattan . The ruling, 360-363 Associates v. Hyers, NYLJ 1202737856287 (September 14, 2015), was published by the New York Law Journal on September 23. The decision may be among the earliest retroactive applications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent marriage equality ruling, Obergefell … <Read More>

Oregon Appeals Court Affirms Damages Award Against Bar That Ousted LGBT Social Club

The Court of Appeals of Oregon has affirmed an award of $405,000 against a North Portland bar and the bar’s owner, Chris Penner, upon a finding by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (OBLI) that they violated the state’s public accommodations law by denying “equal accommodations” to an informal social club that included gay and transgender people. Blachana, LLC v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, 273 Ore. App. 806, 2015 Ore. App. … <Read More>

Federal Court Explains Pretrial Motion Rulings Against Transgender Student in Restroom Lawsuit

U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar issued an opinion on September 17 in G. G. v. Gloucester County School Board, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124905, 2015 WL 5560190 (E.D. Va.), explaining his earlier bench decision in July dismissing the plaintiff’s Title IX count and his September 4 denial of the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction in a dispute over restroom usage at the Gloucester, Virginia, High School. The plaintiff, a transgender boy, is … <Read More>

Rogue Alabama Supreme Court Refuses to Recognize Georgia Co-Parent Adoption

Under the United States Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, a state court is supposed to recognize the judgments of courts from other states unless those courts did not have jurisdiction over the parties or the subject matter of the case.  Asked to rule on whether an Alabama court must recognize a Georgia adoption decree involving a same-sex couple, however, the Alabama Supreme Court manufactured a jurisdictional issue in order to reverse a ruling by … <Read More>

9th Circuit Panel Finds Transgender Mexican Refugees Entitled to CAT Relief

A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has found that conditions for transgender women are so dire in Mexico that they may qualify for protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) based on the realization that they are likely to face torture if deported from the U.S. to Mexico.   Three decisions involving transgender women, issued by the panel on September 3, 2015, were written by Circuit Judge Jacqueline H. … <Read More>