sexual orientation

Supreme Court Refuses to Review Some Pending LGBT-Related Cases: Virginia Sodomy Law; University Discharge of Homophobic Administrator

 

On October 7, the first day of its October 2013 Term, the Supreme Court announced that it had denied petitions for certiorari in two pending LGBT-related cases, MacDonald v. Moose from the 4th Circuit and Dixon v. University of Toledo from the 6th Circuit.

In MacDonald v. Moose, 710 F.3d 154 (4th Cir. 2013), cert. denied sub nom Moose v. MacDonald, No. 12-1490, 2013 WL 3211338, the 4th Circuit … <Read More>

ENDA, Title VII, and Transgender Rights

With a new push to get a floor vote in the Senate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)  which was approved in committee over the summer, it is timely to consider the potential interaction of ENDA with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the main federal employment discrimination statute signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson that went into effect in July 1965.   Title VII prohibits employment discrimination by companies with … <Read More>

9th Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to California Ban on Conversion Therapy for Minors

California Senate Bill 1172, which bans state-licensed mental health providers from conducting “sexual orientation change efforts” (SOCE), commonly known as “conversion therapy,” on patients who are under age 18, was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2013, but two lawsuits challenging its constitutionality, mainly on First Amendment free speech grounds, were filed by practitioners and others, leading to conflicting rulings on motions for preliminary relief.   On August 29, a 9th Circuit panel, ruling
… <Read More>

9th Circuit Orders Withholding of Removal for Gay Man from Philippines

A unanimous panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, ruled on July 24 in Vitug v. Holder, 2013 Westlaw 3814772, that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) should not have reversed a ruling by an Immigration Judge (IJ) that Dennis Vitug, a gay man from the Philippines, was entitled to remain in the United States under U.S. laws providing refuge for people subjected to persecution in their home countries.  … <Read More>

Federal Court Addresses How to Charge Juries in Federal Hate Crimes Cases

U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove (E.D. Ky.) recently conducted a trial of several members of the Jenkins family who were charge with kidnapping and beating Kevin Pennington, a gay man, because of his sexual orientation.  Two members of the family, women, had pled guilty to lesser charges of assisting in commission of the crimes, but Jason and Anthony Jenkins, who performed the physical assault on Pennington, went to trial, and the court had … <Read More>

International Court Rejects Discrimination Claims by Christians Who Won’t Serve Gays

The 4th Section chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the United Kingdom is acting within the “margin of appreciation” under the European Convention on Human Rights in upholding the decisions by two employers to discharge employees who were unwilling to abide by the employers’ non-discrimination policies, which forbid sexual orientation discrimination. The employees in question, one governmental and one non-governmental, posed objections based on their Christian beliefs.

The 4th Section’s … <Read More>