The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill now pending in Congress, would make it an unlawful employment practice for employers that are now covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to discriminate in hiring, firing and terms and conditions of employment because of the sexual orientation or gender identity or expression of an individual. The version of the bill introduced in Congress this year uses language almost identical to that found … <Read More>
Legal Issues
Justice Ginsburg Calls for New Civil Rights Restoration Act
Dissenting from two 5-4 decisions by the Supreme Court in employment discrimination cases issued on June 24, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called for a new Civil Rights Restoration Act, referring to a 1991 statute that overruled or modified several Supreme Court decisions on federal employment discrimination law. In University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the Court interpreted Title VII’s anti-retaliation provision narrowly to apply only to cases where the plaintiff showed that the … <Read More>
Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling – Fisher v. University of Texas
Today the Supreme Court returned the challenge to the University of Texas’s affirmative action admissions program to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for reconsideration. The Court of Appeals, affirming the U.S. District Court, had rejected Abigail Fisher’s challenge to the admissions program, finding that the University had followed the Supreme Court’s requirements spelled out in 2003 in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger, which allow for consideration of race in the context of a … <Read More>
Supreme Court Holds Anti-Prostitution Pledge Required by Federal Funding Law to be Unconstitutional
Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal statute conditioning funding for overseas HIV-prevention work by non-governmental organizations on those organizations having a policy explicitly opposing prostitution violates the 1st Amendment. Writing for the 6-2 majority, Chief Justice John R. Roberts, Jr., quoted from the Court’s famous Flag Salute case from 1943, which stated: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe … <Read More>
Law School Hypothetical? Or Real Life? Same-Sex Spousal Immunity in Kentucky?
Prosecutors in Jefferson County, Kentucky, have charged Bobbie Joe Clary with the murder of George Murphy on October 29, 2011. Clary is arguing self-defense, claiming that Murphy was raping her when she fought back and hit him in the head with a hammer, causing his death.
Clary previously entered into a civil union with Geneva Case in Vermont in 2004. In 2009, Vermont enacted a marriage equality law, under which all previously contracted civil unions … <Read More>
New York Appellate Division Construes HIV Confidentiality Law in Discovery Dispute
A unanimous five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division ruled on June 6 that plaintiffs in a wrongful death action had failed to provide evidence necessary to show a “compelling need” for medical records that might include HIV-related information about the decedent. The ruling, reversing a trial court discovery order, granted plaintiff’s cross-motion for a protective order “concerning records related to any HIV/AIDS status that plaintiff’s decedent may have,” and also cut down the … <Read More>
Divided 5th Circuit Panel Finds No Constitutional Privacy Protection for Lesbian High School Student
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit voted 2-1 that a lesbian high school student did not have a clearly established constitutional right of informational privacy in her sexual orientation. Reversing a district court ruling, the panel held that two female high school softball coaches enjoy immunity from constitutional liability for “outing” the girl to her mother, in apparent retaliation for the girl having told another student that one of … <Read More>
NY Judge Orders Confidentiality for Transgender Professional
Ruling on an issue that he characterized as “apparently one of national first impression,” New York Supreme Court Justice Sam D. Walker (Westchester County) ordered the New York State Education Department, which administers the system of professional licensing throughout the state, to “issue a new professional license and license number to Jane Doe and to conceal from the public any cross reference to the prior license held by John Doe,” as well as prohibiting the … <Read More>
A 4th Amendment Outrage: Supreme Court Approves DNA Testing for Arrestees, 5-4
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today [Maryland v. King, No. 12-207, June 3, 2013] that when the police have probable cause to arrest somebody, they can take a cheek swab and send the results to a national DNA database, and then ask that the results be used to determine whether the arrestee can be associated with any unsolved crimes for which there is DNA evidence. Blazing a new trail in the relentless invasion of privacy … <Read More>
Florida Appellate Courts Disagree About Whether “Sexual Intercourse” Includes Gay Sex
Does “sexual intercourse,” as the term is used in Florida Stat. 384.24(2) and 384.34(5), include anal or oral intercourse between men? The sections in question make it a crime for a person who knows he is infected with HIV to engage in “sexual intercourse” with another person without disclosing this fact. The 2nd and 5th Florida District Courts of Appeal disagree, and the 5th District has certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court to
… <Read More>