U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang ruled on September 30 that Sandor Demokovich, a church organist and choir director who was fired from his position at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Calumet City, in the Archdiocese of Chicago, after marrying his same-sex partner, may pursue a hostile environment disability harassment claim against his former employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Demkovich v. St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168584 … <Read More>
establishment of religion
Another LGBT Case SCOTUS-Bound? Lambda Will Petition for Judicial Review of Ruling on Standing to Challenge Mississippi Statute
Mississippi enacted H.B. 1523 in 2016. The measure enshrines in state statutes a special privilege to discriminate for people whose religious or moral convictions oppose same-sex marriage and sexual relations outside of opposite-sex marriages, and who reject the idea that a person could have a gender identity different from their “biological sex” as identified through external observation of genitals at birth. As part of that special privilege, such individuals are immunized from any “discriminatory” … <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>