In a ruling surprisingly designated as not for publication, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, based in Chicago, has ruled in Matthews v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2011 Westlaw 1192945 (March 30), that the giant retailer did not violate the religious discrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it discharged an employee for spouting religiously-inspired anti-gay bigotry on company premises during a work … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby (N.D.N.Y.) has ruled that a lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of two students (a brother and sister) against the Indian River Central School District (in Central N.Y.) and various district and school officials (including the school board) can proceed on state and federal statutory and constitutional claims, finding that the complaint adequately places in issue whether the school's failure to protect a gay student from bullying and harassment … <Read More>

Westchester County (NY) Supreme Court Justice William J. Giacomo has ruled on a dispute between a married lesbian couple concerning the disposition of the house they jointly purchased shortly before their marriage.  The court's March 22 ruling, published in the NY Law Journal on March 30, rejected one spouse's argument that the property had to be disposed of through a divorce proceeding.

Jane and Diane Taylor were married in Greenwich, Connecticut, on December 12, 2008.  … <Read More>

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California (San Francisco) has invited Lambda Legal to file an amended complaint in Golinski v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the provision upon which the defendant is relying in its refusal to comply with an order by 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski that Karen Golinski, a lawyer employed by the 9th … <Read More>

A chamber consisting of eight judges of the European Court of Human Rights announced on March 10 that it had found Russia to be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights for denying a residence permit to an Uzbeki man on the sole ground that he is infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the pathogen associated with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).  Ruling unanimously in Case of Kiyutin v. Russia, Application No. 2700/10, … <Read More>

In an unpublished opinion issued on March 3, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in EEOC v. Cromer Food Services, Inc., 2011 Westlaw 733814, that U.S. District Judge Henry M. Herlong, Jr. (District of South Carolina) erred in granting summary judgment to the employer in the Equal Employment Opportunity's suit on behalf of Homer Ray Howard, the sexual harassment victim.

As detailed for the court of appeals … <Read More>

State trial judges do not have the authority to overrule decisions by the highest court in their state, so perhaps it is not too surprising that Hennepin County District Judge Mary DuFresne has dismissed a lawsuit brought on behalf of three Minnesota same-sex couples seeking the right to marry.  The March 7 ruling in Benson v. Alverson,  Court File No. 27 CV 10-11697, relies on the first appellate ruling on same-sex marriage in the United States, the … <Read More>

Each year high school students around the country organize a National Day of Silence to provide a vehicle for students and faculty to show empathy for sexual minority students who may feel silenced by the generalized hostility they experience in that tense adolescent setting.  And it seems that each year, some students, egged on by religiously-conservative parents and anti-gay organizations, seek to counter the effect of the National Day of Silence by wearing t-shirts with … <Read More>

Ruling 8-1, the U.S. Supreme court affirmed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals to set aside a $5 million tort verdict against Fred Phelps and other members of his church who picketed the funeral of Matthew Snyder, a U.S. Marine who was killed in action in Iraq, thereby causing severe emotional distress to Snyder's father, the plaintiff in this case.  According to the Supreme Court's opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, because the … <Read More>

Feeling its way through an interesting jurisdictional and procedural thicket, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled yesterday in Rab