The nine-member Washington State Supreme Court refused on June 6 to back down from its earlier decision that Barronelle Stutzman and her business, Arlene’s Flowers, Inc., violated the state’s anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws on February 28, 2013, when she told Robert Ingersoll that she would not provide floral arrangements for his wedding to Curt Freed. The court also ruled that Stutzman had no constitutional privilege to violate the state’s anti-discrimination law based on her … <Read More>
freedom of speech
Florida Federal Judge Refuses to Enjoin Anti-Conversion Therapy Ordinances
On February 13, U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg denied a motion by two Palm Beach County psychologists to block enforcement of the county’s ordinance forbidding licensed health care practitioners from providing “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE, alsocommonly referred to as “conversion therapy”) to minors. The refusal of a preliminary injunction extends as well to a similar ordinance enacted by the city of Boca Raton, which is in Palm Beach County. Judge Rosenberg concluded that … <Read More>
Federal Magistrate Recommends Limited Preliminary Injunction Against Enforcement of Tampa Conversion Therapy Ban
On January 30, U.S. Magistrate Judge Amanda Arnold Sansone (M.D. Fla., Tampa Div.), issued a Report and Recommendation to the U.S. District Court, recommending that the court issue a limited preliminary injunction barring the City of Tampa, Florida, from enforcing its Ordinance banning licensed health care professionals from performing conversion therapy on minors. The Ordinance forbids all kinds of therapy for the purpose of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or to reduce or … <Read More>
Alliance Defending Freedom Files Constitution Challenge to NYC Law Banning Conversion Therapy
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the anti-gay Christian legal organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on January 23, challenging the constitutionality of New York City’s Local Law 22 of 2018, which prohibits the practice of conversion therapy in the City. The law was a project of the City Council, which enacted it on November 30, 2017. It was returned to the Council unsigned by Mayor Bill De Blasio … <Read More>
Indiana Federal District Court Finds No 1st Amendment Protection for College Teacher’s Sexist, Racist, Homophobic and Islamophobic Classroom Comments
Ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment in a lawsuit against a state university by a tenured professor who was suspended after an investigation of classroom conduct and statements brought to light by student complaints, Senior U.S. District Judge James T. Moody ruled that the 1st Amendment did not protect, inter alia, certain statements the professor made about homosexuality. Poulard v. Trustees of Indiana University, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167617 (N.D. Ind., Sept. 28, … <Read More>
Arizona Appeals Court Cites Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision to Rule Out 1st Amendment Exemptions for Stationary Company
The precedential meaning of a Supreme Court decision depends on how lower courts interpret it. The media reported the Supreme Court’s Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling as a “win” for baker Jack Phillips, since the court reversed the discrimination rulings against him by the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. But the opinion has a deeper significance than a superficial “win” or “loss” can capture, as the Arizona Court of Appeals demonstrated just … <Read More>
European Human Rights Court Rules Against Russia on “Homosexual Propaganda” Laws
A seven-member chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued a judgment on June 20 in the case of Bayev & Others v. Russia, Applications nos. 67667/09 and 2 others, holding that local and national laws in Russia making it an administrative offense for somebody to “promote homosexuality among minors” or to promote “non-traditional sexual relations” violates the free speech and equality provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. The … <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>
Federal Court Finds No Substantive Due Process Protection for BDSM Sex
U.S. District Judge Thomas Selby Ellis, III, has rejected the argument that a consensual BDSM relationship is protected against government regulation by the 14th Amendment. Ruling in a case brought by a George Mason University student who was expelled after his former girlfriend, an undergraduate at another school called Jane Roe in the opinion, charged him with violations of the student Code of Conduct including BDSM sex, Ellis rejected the claim that the school’s … <Read More>
Discharged Atlanta Fire Chief Strikes Back in Federal Lawsuit
Kelvin J. Cochran, who was discharged as Chief of the Atlanta, Georgia, Fire and Rescue Department (AFRD) after he self-published a book asserting negative views about homosexuality and same-sex marriage based on his religious beliefs, has struck back at the City and Mayor Kasim Reed with a lawsuit claiming a violation of his constitutional rights. On December 16, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May issued a ruling dismissing some of Cochran’s claims, but allowing others … <Read More>