Last Wednesday I attended the first of a series of subscription concerts by the New York Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman as violin soloist and conductor. For the first half of the program, Zukerman played the solos in violin concerti by Bach and Mozart. After intermission, he conducted the orchestra in Stravinsky's Concerto in D and Mozart's Symphony No. 39.
Attending a Zukerman concert always gives me a nostalgic pull, because one of my earliest concert … <Read More>
I attended a preview performance of "Chimichangas and Zoloft", a new play by Fernanda Coppel, at Atlantic Theater Company on May 30. It has opened since then, so I now feel free to comment about it, keeping in mind, of course, that I attended a preview while the production was still in the process of being prepared for its formal opening, so what I saw on May 30 probably differs from what is now being … <Read More>
The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled 4-3 on June 12, 2012, that Section 296(4) of the N.Y. Executive Law, a provision of the state's Human Rights Law, which bans discrimination in the use of its facilities by an "education corporation or association," does not apply to the public schools of the state. North Syracuse Central School District v. N.Y.S. Division of Human Rights, 2012 WL 2092954. One practical impact of the decision … <Read More>
The New York Court of Appeals
Judge Barbara S. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ruled on June 6 that Edie Windsor, the surviving spouse of Thea Spyer, is entitled to a refund of estate taxes of $363,053 plus interest from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because she is entitled to the spousal exemption based on their Canadian marriage.
Finding that the federal definition of marriage in Section 3 of the Defense of … <Read More>
On May 30, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the denial of a writ of habeas corpus, thus rejecting a challenge by Jack Keith Cook to an Idaho court's determination that he violated that state's "infamous crime against nature" statute, Idaho Code sec. 18-6605, by having sex in a gym sauna. Cook v. Reinke, 2012 Westlaw 1941928.
Cook sought the protection of federal constitutional law under Lawrence … <Read More>
I attended two concerts this past weekend presenting interesting contrasts between the modern setting of an ancient text and real "ancient music." On Saturday night, I attended the New York Philharmonic's subscription concert, on which Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, a "scenic cantata" written in the 1930s setting verses by monks from a medieval monastary in Bavaria, was the principal work. On Sunday night, I attended Musica Nuova's presentation at Le Poisson Rouge of a "pastiche" opera … <Read More>
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has denied a petition filed by the official proponents of Proposition 8 seeking rehearing in Perry v. Brown by a larger panel of circuit judges (referred to as "en banc"). However, the court stayed its mandate in the case "for ninety days pending the filing of a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court. If such a petition is file," said the court, "the … <Read More>
Affirming a ruling by District Judge Alan M. Malott of the Bernalillo County District Court, a three-judge panel of the New Mexico Court of Appeals unanimously ruled on May 31 that Elane Photography, LLC, violated the New Mexico Human Rights Act when it refused to provide photography services for a commitment ceremony for Vanessa Willock and her same-sex partner (who was not named in the court's opinion). Writing for the court of appeals panel, Judge … <Read More>
The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Chatterjee v. King (June 1, 2012) that a lesbian co-parent could pursue joint custody of the child who was adopted by her same-sex partner, where she had held herself out as a parent of the child from the time of the adoption and had fulfilled that role during the early years of the child's life. Reversing the court of appeals and the trial court on this point, … <Read More>