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>
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North Carolina Supreme Court Rejects 1st Amendment Challenge to Social Networking Ban for Sex Offenders
The North Carolina Supreme Court has rejected a 1st Amendment challenge to a provision of state law that forbids convicted sex offenders from accessing most commercial social networking websites, such as facebook.com. State v. Packingham, 2015 WL 6777114 (Nov. 6, 2015).
Lester Packingham, a convicted sex offender, established a facebook.com page using the name J.R. Gerrard. A Durham Police Department officer investigating whether any convicted sex offenders were on facebook.com recognized Packingham … <Read More>
Woman Wins Second Ruling on Unauthorized Use of Photo in Anti-Discrimination Ad
New York Court of Claims Judge Thomas Scuccimarra has ruled that the New York State Division of Human Rights defamed Avril Nolan, a model whose photograph the Division purchased from Getty Images to use in advertisements intended to inform the public that discrimination against people living with HIV is unlawful in New York. Scuccimarra’s ruling in Nolan v. State of New York, No. 123283, reported on October 27 in the New York Law Journal, was … <Read More>
LGBT Legal Organizations Call for Decriminalization of Sex Work as Federal Government Initiates Prosecution of Rentboy.com’s Owner and Employees
On August 20, leading LGBT rights legal organizations in the United States issued a joint statement supporting Amnesty International’s August 11 Resolution that advocates for the human rights of sex workers, including repeal of laws against prostitution. Just days later, on August 25, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raided the New York City offices of Rentboy.com, the world’s largest on-line escorting website, carted away boxes of business records and computers, and arrested the … <Read More>
NY Court Dismisses Divorce Petition Where Religious Marriage was Performed Without a License Ten Years Earlier
In what may have been the first New York court opinion to cite Obergefell v. Hodges, a Manhattan trial judge ruled on July 2 that a purported marriage between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a man was invalid, even though the parties lived together for ten years after a rabbi performed a marriage ceremony for them without a marriage license. Devorah H. v. Steven S., 2015 N.Y. Slip Op. 25228 (Sup. Ct., N.Y. Co.).… <Read More>
Supreme Court Issues Historic Marriage Equality Ruling
The Supreme Court ruled today that “same-sex couples may exercise the right to marry” and that “there is no lawful basis for a State to refuse to recognize a lawful same-sex marriage performed in another State on the ground of its same-sex character.” Writing for the Court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Jr., grounded these marital rights in the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that no State may deprive any person of “liberty” without due process of law … <Read More>
N.Y. 4th Department Rejects Custody & Visitation Petition From Same-Sex Co-Parent
Relying on a quarter-century old N.Y. Court of Appeals precedent under which a same-sex co-parent is considered a “legal stranger” to the child she was raising with her former partner, the Appellate Division, 4th Department has affirmed a decision by Chautauqua County Family Court Judge Judith S. Claire to dismiss a petition for custody and visitation filed by Brooke S. Barone. The ruling in Barone v. Chapman, 2015 N.Y. App. Div. LEIS 5226, 2015 WL … <Read More>
Supreme Court Argument Leaves Marriage Equality Proponents Cautiously Optimistic for June 2015 Victory
My first take on today’s oral argument in the Supreme Court:
The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, No. 14-556, on April 28, considering the questions whether same-sex couples have a right to marry and to have their marriages recognized by states other than those in which they marry. The case consolidated appeals from the plaintiffs in four states – Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky — whose district court … <Read More>
American Symphony Orchestra Examines Obscure Works of Major Composers
Last night at Carnegie Hall, the American Symphony Orchestra presented “Opus Posthumous,” a concert devoted to works that were not first performed until after the deaths of their composers. These included an opera overture by Franz Schubert to an opera never published or performed in his lifetime, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 00 (a study symphony he composed but did not consider suitable for performance), and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 1, which was composed for entry
Federal Court Orders Stay of New Family & Medical Leave Act Regulation
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Wichita Falls, issued an order on March 26 requiring the U.S. Department of Labor to stay the implementation of a new regulation that changes the definition of “spouse” under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to include same-sex couple, wherever they reside, who were married in a jurisdiction that allows same-sex marriages. State of Texas v. … <Read More>