The New Jersey Appellate Division, an intermediate appeals court, threw out a state court jury’s conviction of Dharun Ravi on fifteen different criminal counts, finding that trial evidence about how Ravi’s actions in September 2010 adversely affected his college dormitory roommate, Tyler Clementi, had tainted all the verdicts in the case because it may have caused the jury to convict Ravi based on the victim’s belief rather than the defendant’s intent. Five of the convictions … <Read More>
VA Nurse Loses Job For Manipulating Male Genitals During Physical Exams
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected a Veterans Administration nurse’s challenge to his discharge for an unorthodox approach to diagnosing male genital warts in Riano v. McDonald, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15097 (Aug. 17, 2016).
James Riano, who worked as a registered nurse for the VA in Milwaukee, had previously worked as a hospital corpsman in the Navy. In 2004, he began working as an RN at the VA … <Read More>
Texas Appeals Court Denies Constitutional Challenge to “Online Impersonation” Statute in Manhunt.net Case
Who knew? It is potentially a crime in Texas, and apparently several other states, to pose as somebody else on social media sites like Manhunt.net, and this does not violate anybody’s 1st Amendment rights, held a panel of the Texas 5th District Court of Appeals in Ex parte Bradshaw, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 9203, 2016 WL 4443714 (Aug. 23, 2016).
According to the opinion by Justice Robert M. Fillmore, Michael Dwain Bradshaw has been … <Read More>
New York Court of Appeals Overrules Alison D., Sets New Test for Co-Parent Standing
The New York Court of Appeals has overruled a quarter-century-old precedent, establishing a new rule for determining when somebody who is neither a biological nor an adoptive parent can seeking custody of a child. The opinion for the court by Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam in Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A. C.C., 2016 N.Y. LEXIS 2668, 2016 Westlaw 4507780 (August 30, 2016), provides that “where a partner shows by clear and convincing evidence that the parties … <Read More>
District Judge Enjoins Enforcement of H.B. 2 against Transgender Plaintiffs by the University of North Carolina
U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder granted a motion for preliminary injunction brought by attorneys for three transgender plaintiffs asserting a Title IX challenge to North Carolina’s bathroom bill, H.B.2. Carcano v. McCrory, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114605 (M.D. N.C., August 26, 2016). Finding that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their Title IX challenge in his district court because he was bound by the 4th Circuit Court of … <Read More>
New Hampshire Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Divorce Property Distribution
The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled on August 19 that a judge deciding a divorce case for a lesbian couple could take into account the couple’s many years of cohabitation before the state made it possible for them to become civil union partners and then spouses, in deciding how to divide up their “marital assets.” The decision in Matter of Deborah Munson and Coralee Beal, 2016 N.H. LEXIS 180, 2016 WL 4411308, adopts a … <Read More>
9th Circuit Rejects Religious Freedom Challenge to California Law Banning Conversion Therapy for Minors
California’s S.B. 1172, which prohibits state-licensed mental health providers from engaging in “sexual orientation change efforts” (commonly known as “conversion therapy”) with minors, withstood another 1st Amendment challenge in a new decision by the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in the case of Welch v. Brown, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15444, 2016 WL 4437617, announced on August 23.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the court of appeals affirmed … <Read More>
Federal Court Issues Nationwide Injunction to Stop Federal Enforcement of Title IX in Gender Identity Cases
A federal district judge in Wichita Falls, Texas, has issued a “nationwide preliminary injunction” against the Obama Administration’s enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act to require schools to allow transgender students to use restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity. Judge Reed O’Connor’s August 22 ruling, State of Texas v. United States of America, Civ. Action No. 7:16-cv-00054-O (N.D. Texas), is directed specifically at a “Dear Colleague” letter dated May 13, 2016, … <Read More>
Denial of Refuge to Jamaican Who Claims to Be Bisexual Sparks Disagreement on 7th Circuit Panel
By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit affirmed a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to deny relief under the Convention Against Torture to a Jamaican man who claims to be bisexual. [Petitioner] v. Lynch, 2016 WL 4376516, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15127 (August 17, 2016). The majority of the panel, in an opinion by Judge Diane Pamela Wood, found that … <Read More>
Illinois Supreme Court Rejects Equitable Distribution Rights in Breakup of Lesbian Couple
Reversing a ruling by the state’s court of appeals, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on August 18 that the state’s statutory prohibition of common law marriage, enacted a century ago, still “precludes unmarried cohabitants [including same-sex couples] from bringing claims against one another to enforce mutual property rights where the rights asserted are rooted in a marriage-like relationship between the parties.” Although two different panels of the state’s intermediate court of appeals have rejected this … <Read More>