New York County Surrogate Nora Anderson issued a decision on February 18, 2014, in the pending will contest In the Matter of the Accounting of Martin Ephraim, as Fiduciary of the Deceased Executor, for the Estate of Ronald D. Myers, No. 2006/4109 (N.Y. Surrogate’s Court, N.Y. County), which surprisingly relied on old New York cases to prefer the mother of the decedent over his surviving same-sex partner in distributing disputed assets of the estate, … <Read More>
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The State of Play Now on Marriage Equality
Yesterday at Cornell University I participated on a Reunion Panel co-sponsored by the CU Gay & Lesbian Alumni Association (CUGALA) and the Law School, titled “One Year Later: U.S. Law and Politics in the Post-DOMA World.” My assigned task on the panel was to discuss how the response to U.S. v. Windsor has played out over the ensuing 11 months. My prepared text is in two parts: a chronology of events, and a discussion of … <Read More>
Pennsylvania’s Next: U.S. District Judge Orders State to Allow and Recognize Same-Sex Marriages, and State Complies!
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, a Republican appointed to the federal district court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by President George W. Bush in 2002, ruled on May 20 in Whitewood v. Wolf that Pennsylvania’s statutes banning same-sex marriages in the state or recognition of same-sex marriages formed outside the state violate the 14th Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. Judge Jones issued an order declaring both statutes unconstitutional and permanently enjoining the state … <Read More>
Sigh of Relief for Law Prof Sued for Defamation and Invasion of Privacy Due to Law Review Article and Lecture
Law professors publish law review articles in which they may discuss cases pending in the courts. Such discussions may relate what the plaintiffs are alleging and then theorize about how the courts might treat such claims. When a professor includes the names of the parties in the lawsuit, and one of them feels that the professor’s discussion could be harmful to the party’s reputation and lead people to take an unfavorable view of them, should … <Read More>
Cultural Diary: April 27-May 6 – Ups and Downs…
On April 27, I attended a performance by the extraordinary new music band, Alarm Will Sound, directed by Alan Pierson at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall as part of the series “collected stories” curated by composer David Lang. Lang’s series extended over a week of concerts, with this one come towards the end. The idea of this program was to bring together some diverse examples of music intended to illustrate a story of some sort, in … <Read More>
Massachusetts Appeals Court Affirms Jury’s Rejection of Gay Man’s Tort Claims Against Former Partner
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts upheld a jury verdict against a gay man who sought to hold his ex-partner liable in tort for intentional infliction of emotional distress and battery based on various incidents that occurred during their relationship. The case is M.L. v. S.N., 2014 Mass. App. Unpub. LEXIS 354 (March 19, 2014).
M.L. and S.N. were engaged in a “serious romantic relationship” from 1998 until 2008. Evidently, M.L. was a really hot looking … <Read More>
A Concert Diary for the First Half of March 2014 – Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Peoples’s Symphony Concerts, Houston Symphony
The first two weeks of March have been quite busy, and again I’ve fallen behind in posting about my concert-going experiences. So here is a quick catch-up.
I had a double-header on Saturday, March 1, attending the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Prince Igor in the afternoon, and a piano recital by Alexandre Tharaud at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in the evening.
The Met’s new production of Prince Igor, produced an designed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, takes a … <Read More>
1st Circuit Vacates Koselik Ruling for En Banc Review
A majority of the five active judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has voted to withdraw and vacate the 2-1 panel decision in Kosilek v. Spencer, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 951, 2014 WL 185512 (1st Cir., Jan. 17, 2014), which had ruled that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections must provide gender reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek, who is serving a sentence of life imprisonment with no chance for parole upon … <Read More>
A Weekend’s Entertainment: Monument Men, Jonathan Groff at American Songbook (Lincoln Center), Bertolt Brecht’s “A Man’s A Man” at Classic Stage Company
I began the weekend by seeing “The Monument Men,” a new movie from George Clooney based on the story of a special U.S. Army unit that functioned in Europe towards the end of World War II in an attempt to reclaim art stolen by the Nazis. Some reviews have pointed out that this story has been depicted in film before, and questioned whether it needed to be shown again. I found the movie to be … <Read More>
Bureaucratic Obtuseness Leads to Discrimination Claim by Transgender Woman against New York City
New York State Supreme Court Justice Margaret A. Chan (Supreme Court, New York County) ruled on December 2 that a transgender Jane Doe plaintiff had stated a cause of action against New York City based on the treatment she received when she requested that the Human Resources Administration’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) update it records and issue her a new benefits ID card that correctly identifies her name and gender. My first reaction on reading … <Read More>