A gay man’s attempt to hold Grindr responsible for his arrest and prosecution for sex with a minor was cut short on March 13 when U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle in New Jersey ruled that the provider of an “interactive computer service” enjoys statutory immunity from liability for harm resulting from the content posted to its service by third parties. Saponaro v. Grindr, LLC, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30795.
Because Judge Simandle was ruling … <Read More>
On March 3 the Alabama Supreme Court “pulled a fast one,” issuing a per curiam decision seeking to effectively override some federal district court opinions, ordering the probate judges throughout the state to continue enforcing Alabama’s constitutional and statutory prohibitions on same-sex marriage even though the federal district court has declared them unconstitutional, and both the 11th Circuit and the Supreme Court had denied Attorney General Luther Strange’s petition for a stay pending appeal to … <Read More>
Finding that Nebraska’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon granted a motion by seven same-sex couples to issue a preliminary injunction against its enforcement. [The case is Waters v. Ricketts, 2015 WL 852603, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25869 (D. Neb., March 2, 2015).] While denying the state’s request to stay his order pending appeal, Judge Bataillon agreed to delay his ruling … <Read More>
A New Jersey federal judge has ruled that a Union County public school teacher who lost her job after posting anti-gay comments to her Facebook page may continue her lawsuit against the school board and various officials on claims of constitutional violations. Although District Judge Kevin McNulty dismissed several of Jenye Viki Knox’s claims, the central constitutional claims survived the defendants’ motion to dismiss in Knox v. Union Township Board of Education, 2015 U.S. Dist. … <Read More>
Reversing the conviction of HIV-positive Air Force Technical Sergeant David Gutierrez on charges of aggravated assault for engaging in unprotected oral and vaginal sex with women during “swingers” parties, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled on February 23 in United States v. Gutierrez, No. 13-0522, that statistics about the likelihood of transmission of HIV under such circumstances would not support a conviction under Article 128(b) of the Uniform Code of Military … <Read More>
The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled 4-1 on February 19 that a Syracuse (Onondaga County) trial judge had appropriately granted a defendant’s motion to reduce charges against him from felony to misdemeanor reckless endangerment where the defendant had apparently transmitted HIV to another man by engaging in unprotected anal sex without disclosing his HIV status, reassuring his sex partner that it was “okay.” People v. Williams, 2015 WL 685818. The … <Read More>
A New Jersey trial judge issued two rulings in February in a pending consumer fraud case against JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing), an organization that provides so-called “conversion therapy” seeking to “assist individuals to purge unwanted same-sex attractions,” finding that certain representations made by JONAH to potential clients violate the state’s law against consumer fraud. The judge, Peter F. Bariso, Jr., of the Superior Court in Hudson County, also ruled that most of … <Read More>
Just weeks ago, Michigan’s Court of Appeals dealt two strikes against former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, rejecting his challenge to his discharge by former Attorney General Mike Cox and denying his claim for unemployment benefits. Shirvell, who had undertaken an obsessive campaign to discredit the openly gay president of the student government association at his alma mater, University of Michigan, was held by the state appeals court to lack any First Amendment free … <Read More>
The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 on January 29, 2015, that the state’s sex offender registration law does not violate equal protection when it gives courts discretion whether to impose a registration requirement on adults who engage in vaginal intercourse with minors age 16 or 17, but mandates registration for other sexual acts involving minors of those ages. Johnson v. Department of Justice, 2015 WL 363184. The decision overruled a 2006 case, People v. Hofsheier, … <Read More>
U.S. District Judge Callie V. S. Granade ruled on January 23 that Alabama’s constitutional and statutory ban on same-sex marriage violates the 14th Amendment. Her ruling in Searcy v. Strange, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7776 (S.D. Alabama), released on a Friday afternoon, did not make any mention of a stay pending appeal, but the public announcement of its release came too late in the day for same-sex couples to apply for licenses at county clerks’ … <Read More>