The New York Court of Appeals

Judge Barbara S. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ruled on June 6 that Edie Windsor, the surviving spouse of Thea Spyer, is entitled to a refund of estate taxes of $363,053 plus interest from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because she is entitled to the spousal exemption based on their Canadian marriage. 

 Finding that the federal definition of marriage in Section 3 of the Defense of … <Read More>

While preparing to give a talk at my synagogue on the current legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States to mark the beginning of Gay Pride Month 2012 and the forthcoming first anniversary of the enactment of the New York Marriage Equality Law, I decided to put together a chronology of same-sex marriage legal developments in the United States over the past five months of 2012. I was amazed at how much has … <Read More>

Over the past week I've enjoyed several really terrific concerts that I will briefly mention here.

On Saturday night, April 21, I attended the last performance of the Miller Theatre Early Music Series for this concert season.  The British group Stile Antico, a vocal ensemble of six women and six men who perform primarily Renaissance polyphony without a conductor, presented a survey of 16th and early 17th century music at the Church of St. Mary and … <Read More>

Here's a neat idea.  We know that "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were originally lengthy poems recited by rhapsodes to audiences in Greek taverns and other gathering places, passed down and refined over generations until somebody finally transcribed them and attributed them to Homer, about whom virtually nothing is known.  Lisa Peterson had the idea of attempting to recreate in a modern way the idea of a rhapsode – a lyrical reciter – relating the … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber (N.D. Ill.) ruled on January 5, 2012, in Revelis v. Napolitano, 2012 WL 28765, that an action by a married same-sex couple seeking a declaration that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional in the context of their application for a spousal visa meets the requirements for Article III jurisdiction, even though their application has not yet been denied by the United States Citizenship & Immigration … <Read More>

Ruling on February 9, 2012, the Fifth Section of the European Court of Human Rights rejected the free speech claims of four Swedish men who had been convicted of violating a Swedish statute making it a crime to distribute a statement or communication that

A reader of my blog posting on Tuesday's 9th Circuit decision in Perry v. Brown, the California Proposition 8 case, asked me to clarify what I meant when I said there is no appeal "as of right" from this decision, so I've decided to post my ruminations about whether this case is going further.

This case is over unless either a majority of the judges on the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals votes … <Read More>

A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled on January 27 that District Judge George C. Steeh (E.D. Mich.) should not have granted summary judgment in favor of Eastern Michigan University on a 1st and 14th Amendment free speech/free exercise of religion claim by a graduate student who was expelled from the graduate counseling program after she asked that counseling practicum clients presenting gay relationship issues be referred to … <Read More>

The Court of Appeals of Minnesota ruled on January 23, 2012, that Hennepin County District Judge Mary Dufresne erred in dismissing outright a lawsuit by three same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses.  Finding that the trial judge had inappropriately relied on a 1971 Minnesota Supreme Court decision, Baker v. Nelson, the court of appeals sent the case back to the trial court for a determination whether the denial of marriage licenses violates the Minnesota Constitution's due … <Read More>