A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, has affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story that the Georgia General Assembly's Office of Legislative Counsel violated the Equal Protection rights of Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a transgender woman, when she was discharged for transitioning from male to female while employed by the OLC. Glenn v. Brumby, No. 10-14833, 10-15015 (Dec. 6, 2011).
Both … <Read More>
I saw this strange and disturbing play, "Wild Animals You Should Know," by Thomas Higgins, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Saturday afternoon. This is a production of MCC Theater, with Trip Cullman conducting a very strong cast, consisting of John Behlmann, Patrick Breen, Gideon Glick, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Alice Reipley, and Daniel Stewart Sherman.
The premise is that teenage boys are savage animals… Well, at least some of them. The central character, Matthew, is … <Read More>
I seem to be having very good luck with concerts this season. Again this week I have enjoyed three extraordinary concerts. On Monday evening at Carnegie Hall, I heard a gripping program by two outstanding British musicians, tenor Ian Bostridge and composer-pianist Thomas Ades. On Thursday, I heard another outstanding Englishman, Daniel Harding, conduct the New York Philharmonic in Deryck Cooke's performing edition of the sketches Gustav Mahler left for a tenth symphony. And, tonight, … <Read More>
After the Marriage Equality Law was enacted by the New York legislature last summer, some opponents of the law filed a lawsuit in Livingston County Supreme Court, seeking a declaration that the law was invalidly enacted and an injunction striking it from the statute books. Their lawsuit, titled New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom v. New York State Senate, No. 807-2011, was assigned to Acting Justice Robert B. Wiggins. Their case rested on two contentions: first, … <Read More>
This week the New York Philharmonic is presenting a program that could have been presented, at least theoretically, in 1800. I attended the Saturday night rendition. Guest conductor & keyboard artist Jeffrey Kahane brought his great enthusiam and energetic advocacy for the classical repertory of the late 18th century on what is becoming an annual affair between the west coast artist and the east coast orchestra.
On the one hand, this can be considered a … <Read More>
I saw this yesterday. Clint Eastwood and Dustin Lance Black have collaborated to provide a dramatization of the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the long-serving Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an autonomous agency within the Justice Department that was formed early in the 20th century to investigate potential violations of federal laws and gradually expanded its authority to become a very active, full-scale federal law enforcement agency, akin to a federal police force, under … <Read More>
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, reversing a ruling by District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, has granted summary judgment to the City of New York, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and individual defendants from the law enforcement community, finding that the officers enjoyed qualified immunity from liability for false arrest and malicious prosecution, asserted by a gay man caught up in an alleged sting operation carried out by the NYPD against gay men patronizing stores selling … <Read More>
The confluence of subscription series and single ticket purchases for me was so heavy over the past ten days that I couldn't find the time to post individual blog items about all the events I was attending. The programs have just piled up, and now I'll do a quick summary:
Paul Van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble. I attended both of the concerts conducted by Van Nevel with members of his Huelgas Ensemble as part … <Read More>
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the proponents of Proposition 8, the voter initiative that amended the California Constitution in 2008 to provide that only the marriage of one man and one woman will be recognized or valid in California, have standing as a matter of state law to represent the state's interest in defending the constitutional amendment from a federal constitutional challenge. Perry v. Brown, 2011 WL 5578873 (November 17, 2011).
Answering questions certified to … <Read More>
New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis B. York has granted summary judgment in favor of Richard Jefferys, one of three defendants in a defamation lawsuit brought by Celia Farber, a journalist who has written numerous articles presenting in a favorable light the contention that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. Justice York's decision involves only the allegations against Jefferys, who is associated with the Treatment Action Group (TAG), and does not concern the other … <Read More>