New York’s Top Court Affirms Lifetime Sex Offender Status for Man Acquitted by a Jury

In a ruling that received some surprised comment from the media, the New York Court of Appeals affirmed by a 6-1 vote a decision by Kings County Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice to assign sufficient points under the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) to a man who was acquitted of all the felony sex crimes charges against him to place him in the category of a level 2 sex offender, which requires lifetime … <Read More>


Out Gay Federal Judge Rejects Anonymity for Genderqueer Trans-Masculine Plaintiff

 

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, himself the first out gay man to be appointed a federal trial judge, has granted a motion by the defendants in an employment discrimination case to lift an order he had previously issued allowing the plaintiff, a “genderqueer and transmasculine” individual, to proceed anonymously as “Jamie Doe” in a discrimination lawsuit against their former employer, Fedcap Rehabilitation Services, and two of Fedcap’s supervisors. Judge Oetken gave the plaintiff … <Read More>


Appellate Courts Rule on Discrimination Against Gay Jurors

 

On May 3, two appellate courts issued rulings on appeals of criminal convictions in which gay men in the jury pool were dismissed on “peremptory challenges” by the prosecuting attorneys.  The California 3rd District Court of Appeal decided that the defendant in People v. Douglas, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 403, a gay man, is entitled to a new trial.  The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in Morgan v. State, 2018 Nev. LEXIS 31, 134 … <Read More>


Can Three Parents Make a Family in New York?

 

                In an opinion issued on April 10, New York Family Court Judge Carol Goldstein confronted the question whether there can be a third parent – an adult with legal rights to seek custody and visitation of a child who already has two legal, biological parents – in the context of a married gay male couple and the woman who agreed to have a child with them and share parenting.  She concluded that the “non-biological <Read More>


Federal Court Rejects Trump Administration Ploy and Orders Trial on Trans Military Ban

U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman issued an Order on April 13 in Karnoski v. Trump, one of four pending legal challenges to the Trump Administration’s announced ban on military service by transgender people.  Judge Pechman, who sits in the Western District of Washington (Seattle), rejected the Administration’s argument that existing preliminary injunctions issued by her and three other federal district judges last year against the transgender ban are moot because of President Donald J. … <Read More>


Mississippi Supreme Court, Rejecting Parental Status for an Anonymous Sperm Donor, Says Birth Mother Can’t Challenge Same-Sex Partner’s Parentage

Ruling on a custody contest between a birth mother and her former same-sex spouse on April 5, the Mississippi Supreme Court avoided mentioning the parental presumption that most states automatically apply for the spouse of a woman who gives birth to a child, relying instead on a doctrine called “equitable estoppel” to prevent the birth mother from contesting her former spouse’s parental status.

Although none of the five written opinions signed by different combinations of … <Read More>


Trump Administration Issues New Transgender Military Policy, Attempting To Sidetrack Lawsuits

In a move intended to evade existing preliminary injunctions while reaffirming in its essential elements President Trump’s Twitter announcement from last July categorically prohibiting military service by transgender individuals, the Administration issued three new documents on Friday afternoon, March 23, the date that the President had designated in an August 2017 Memorandum for his announced policy to take effect.  A new Presidential Memorandum “revoked” Trump’s August Memo and authorized the Defense and Homeland Security Secretaries … <Read More>


Trump Administration Defies Court Disclosure Order on Eve of Previously Announced Trans Military Policy Implementation Date

On August 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued a Memorandum to the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, directing that effective March 23, 2018, transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military. The Memorandum charged Defense Secretary James Mattis with the task of submitting an implementation plan to the White House by February 21.  Mattis submitted something in writing on February 23, but its contents have not been made public.

Meanwhile, … <Read More>


Federal Court Rejects Challenge to Montana Law Against Plural Marriage

U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters has accepted a recommendation from Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan to grant the state’s motion for summary judgment in Collier v. Fox, 2018 WL 1247388 (D. Mont., March 9, 2018), adopting Findings and Recommendations, 2018 WL 1247411 (D. Mont., Feb. 22, 2018), a challenge to the constitutionality of Montana’s ban on plural marriage.

Nathan and Vicki married in South Carolina in 2000, and remain married today. “Nathan is also in … <Read More>


Federal Appeals Court Rules for Transgender Funeral Director in Title VII Discrimination Suit

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled on March 7 in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc., 2018 WL 1177669, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 5720, that a Michigan funeral home violated federal anti-discrimination law by terminating a funeral director who announced that she would be transitioning during her summer vacation and would return to work as a woman.  The 6th … <Read More>