New Supreme Court Term Potentially Momentous for LGBT Rights

The Supreme Court begins its October 2018 Term, which runs through June 2019, on October 1. During the week of September 24, the Court holds its “long conference,” during which the Justices consider the long list of petitions for review filed with the Court since last spring, and assembles its docket of cases for argument after those granted late last term are heard.  While there are several petitions involving LGBT-related issues pending before the Court, … <Read More>



TWO MORE LGBTQ-RELATED CONTROVERSIES DROP OFF THE SUPREME COURT DOCKET

As the Supreme Court’s 2017-18 Term began in October, it looked like a banner term for LGBTQ-related cases at the nation’s highest court. Petitions were pending asking the Court to address a wide range of issues, including whether LGBTQ people are protected against discrimination under federal sex discrimination laws covering employment (from Georgia) and educational opportunity (from Wisconsin), whether LGBTQ people in Mississippi had standing to seek a federal order to prevent a viciously anti-gay … <Read More>


Trump Administration Withdraws Title IX Guidance in Contradictory “Dear Colleague” Letter

 

The Trump Administration, keeping a promise made by Donald Trump during his campaign to leave the issue of restroom and locker room access by transgender students up to state and local officials, issued a letter to all the nation’s school districts on February 22, withdrawing a letter that the Obama Administration Education Department submitted in the Gavin Grimm transgender rights case on January 7, 2015, and a “Dear Colleague” letter sent jointly by the … <Read More>


Lesbian Mom’s Case Closer To Supreme Court Review

A lesbian mother’s quest for joint custody of the children she had adopted in Georgia and raised together with her former same-sex partner took a step closer to the Supreme Court on Monday, December 14, when the Court granted her “Application for Recall and Stay of Certificate of Judgment of Alabama Supreme Court.”  V.L. v. E.L., No. 15-648.  V.L. is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a September 18 ruling by the Alabama Supreme … <Read More>


Supreme Court Refuses to Review Some Pending LGBT-Related Cases: Virginia Sodomy Law; University Discharge of Homophobic Administrator

 

On October 7, the first day of its October 2013 Term, the Supreme Court announced that it had denied petitions for certiorari in two pending LGBT-related cases, MacDonald v. Moose from the 4th Circuit and Dixon v. University of Toledo from the 6th Circuit.

In MacDonald v. Moose, 710 F.3d 154 (4th Cir. 2013), cert. denied sub nom Moose v. MacDonald, No. 12-1490, 2013 WL 3211338, the 4th Circuit … <Read More>


Supreme Court Strikes Section 3 of DOMA, Dismisses Proposition 8 Appeal

[Second draft of history.  My prior posting on this week’s ruling in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases was written shortly after the opinion was release, and was intended as a basis for my journalistic comment to be published in Gay City News that day.  Herewith my more extensive draft, reflecting further thought and containing many more quotes from the Court’s opinion, written two days later.  And amended after a few hours to reflect some

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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>