Judge: NOM must disclose donors
After being denied an injunction, NOM lost their case to keep donor names secret in Maine.
Tags: Donor Names, Donors, Injunction, Lost, MaineFederal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban
Whatever Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker winds up deciding on Proposition 8, it’s clear he wants an airtight trial record to support it.
Holding his first hearing Thursday on the controversial measure that outlawed same-sex marriage, Walker repeatedly stressed the importance of establishing a record that will stand the test of time.
He told a packed courtroom that he was “reasonably sure” that the challenge launched by two high-profile litigators is “only touching down in this court” and merely a “prelude” for things to come.
“How we do things here,” Walker said, “is more important than what we do.”
He noted that other courts have rendered decisions on same-sex marriage without holding full trials, which he suggested was a “problem.”
Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 09-CV-2292, was filed in May by Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, and David Boies, who represented Al Gore. Boies wasn’t present on Thursday. The suit attacks Prop 8 on equal protection and due process grounds.
Walker had already issued a tentative order allowing Prop 8 proponents to intervene and denying a preliminary injunction (pdf). He stood by both orders during Thursday’s 50-minute session.
Olson, a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 55 times, nonetheless made a fleeting attempt to persuade Walker to change his mind on the injunction.
“Every day that Prop 8 is enforced perpetuates a tragic injustice” on gays and lesbians, he argued, saying it “brands” them as “second-class citizens, unworthy and different.”
“The Supreme Court,” Olson argued, “has held again and again and again that the right to marry is the most important relationship in life.”
Representing the Prop 8 proponents, Washington attorney Charles Cooper, who was a top Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration, warned that the lawsuit could “sweep away” not only Prop 8, but the definition of marriage in 43 states and the federal government.
The Cooper & Kirk partner also argued that marriage has by tradition always been the union of a man and a woman, and said that every Supreme Court case that describes marriage has noted that its central purpose is procreation.
See Federal Judge Stresses Trial Record on Calif. Gay-Marriage Ban Above the Law
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/federal-judge…
Judge likely won’t grant Prop. 8 injunctionA…
Judge likely won’t grant Prop. 8 injunction
A federal judge in San Francisco said Tuesday that he is disinclined to suspend California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage while a lawsuit challenging it as a violation of the U.S. Constitution proceeds in his court.
In a tentative order, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said he’d rather move directly to a speedy trial on the case’s merits than grant a preliminary injunction that would temporarily allow gay nuptials. see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/30/state/n150147D61.DTL
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/judge-likely-…
Judge favors trial soon on Calif. gay marriage ban
A federal judge wants a trial on California’s same-sex marriage ban to proceed quickly but says he likely won’t suspend the voter-approved ban in the meantime.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said holding a speedy trial on the merits of a lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 would avoid novel issues that might be raised if he issued a temporary injunction.
See Judge favors trial soon on Calif. gay marriage ban
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/judge-favors-…
Lawyers: Gay couples’ rights justify injunction San Jose Mercury New
SAN FRANCISCO—Two high-profile lawyers are arguing that any bureaucratic inconvenience caused by suspending California’s same-sex marriage ban is outweighed by the ongoing discrimination being suffered by gay and lesbian couples.
Theodore Olson and David Boies, who represented opposing sides in the 2000 presidential election challenge, Bush v. Gore, filed papers Thursday buttressing their argument that Proposition 8 should be lifted while a federal lawsuit challenging the voter-approved measure proceeds in court.
See Lawyers: Gay couples’ rights justify injunction
San Jose Mercury New
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/lawyers-gay-c…
Schwarzenegger, AG Brown oppose bid to immediately block Prop 8
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown on Thursday urged a federal judge to keep Proposition 8 in force for now, arguing that it would create too much uncertainty across the state to put the voter-approved ban on gay marriage on hold while the latest legal challenge unfolds in the federal courts.
In court papers, state lawyers argued against an injunction that would freeze the current gay marriage ban, opposing a request filed in federal court in San Francisco last month by two gay couples seeking the right to marry. Backed by former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and renowned lawyer David Boies, the couples moved to counterract the California Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding Proposition 8, arguing that it violates equal protection rights under the federal constitution.
Brown and Schwarzenegger argued separately that it would create too much havoc to put the law on hold until the constitutional issues are resolved, perhaps eventually by the U.S. Supreme Court. The governor and attorney general did not take a position on the federal constitutional questions, focusing only on whether Prop 8 should be blocked while the case is litigated, a move that would allow same-sex couples to resume marrying in California.
Brown had previously urged the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8, and Schwarzenegger has said publicly he believes the courts eventually will permit gay marriage.
See Schwarzenegger, AG Brown oppose bid to immediately block Prop 8 San Jose Mercury News
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/schwarzenegge…
Lambda Legal Applauds West Virginia Court Order Restoring Custody of Foster Child to Lesbian Mothers
“The West Virginia high court has done the right thing in ruling in the best interests of this child. We applaud them for rejecting the prejudice that would have removed her from the only home she ever knew,” said Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Southern Regional Office in Atlanta. “Children in West Virginia need parents to love and care for them and that’s what the state should want, too.”
Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the court on February 19, 2009, on behalf of Foster Children Alumni Association, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of the Eastern Panhandle, COLAGE (Children of Lesbian and Gays Everywhere), and Fairness West Virginia to urge the reversal of a trial court order removing the then year-old girl from the home of Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess. The removal was ordered after the couple indicated that they wished to adopt the child. The trial judge accepted the view of the guardian ad litem that the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) should only pursue an adoption placement for the child in a “traditional family,” consisting of both a mother and a father. The GAL also sought a statewide injunction barring foster children from being placed in gay homes. Friday’s ruling reverses this lower court finding, allows the child to remain with her foster parents, and permits the possibility that this home where the child has thrived eventually will be the adoption placement for the child.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/lambda-legal-…
New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together
The California Supreme Court failed to protect gay couples’ fundamental right to marry when it upheld Proposition 8, forcing same-sex couples to appeal to the federal courts to remedy the injustice, two prominent lawyers said today in announcing a lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples.
Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, a renowned conservative, and David Boies, who opposed Olson in Bush v. Gore in the 2000 fight over the presidential election, cast their collaborative effort to restore the right of gays to marry in California as a moral imperative to correct an injustice. Their suit seeks an immediate injunction on Prop. 8’s ban, thereby allowing same-sex marriages to resume while the case makes its way through the federal court system.
But Olson’s role in the gay rights mission prompted much speculation about his motives. The former Bush administration official, who lost his wife in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, conceded that the federal courts might not be ready to recognize sexual orientation as a class in need of protection from discrimination, but he said he hoped “that people don’t suspect my motives,” vowing to demonstrate his commitment to equal rights by winning the challenge.
Boies vouched for Olson as “committed in heart and soul to equality and committed in heart and soul to the Constitution.” See New Prop. 8 court challenge brings former legal rivals together Los Angeles Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-prop-8-co…
Gay rights advocates rip suit to undo Prop. 8
Gay rights advocates Wednesday blasted two veteran attorneys for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, saying the move is premature and could be disastrous for the marriage movement.
While they knew of the objections, attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies - who opposed each other during the 2000 Bush v. Gore presidential election case - filed the suit Friday in San Francisco on behalf of two same-sex couples who wanted to be married but were denied because of Prop. 8.
The suit claims the voter-approved measure, which the California Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday, denies same-sex couples the basic liberties and equal protection under the law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. It asks for a preliminary injunction against Prop. 8 until the case is decided.
Olson said he filed the case not only on behalf of his clients, who include Berkeley residents Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, but on behalf of gay couples elsewhere who want to get married but can’t.
“We can’t tell them to wait, what, five years” for their state to approve same-sex marriage, he said, but acknowledged that it could take two years for his case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
While Olson shares the same end goal as same-sex marriage advocates, he doesn’t share their political strategy - to win states individually, with ballot initiatives or laws approved by state legislatures. Several same-sex marriage advocates intend to put the issue to voters in November 2010.
Olson thinks both strategies can work simultaneously. But many gay legal advocates are urging same-sex couples to avoid filing federal lawsuits because federal courts have not been as friendly to gay rights issues See * Gay rights advocates rip suit to undo Prop. 8 San Francisco Chronicle Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/gay-rights-ad…
Lambda Legal Files Federal Lawsuit Against Assisted Living Facility Following Eviction of HIV-Positive Retired Minister
‘They shunned and rejected him, making him feel like a complete outcast.’
(Little Rock, Ark.) — Lambda Legal announced today that it has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas against Fox Ridge of North Little Rock, an assisted living facility.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 75-year-old Reverend Dr. Robert Franke, a retired university provost and Unitarian-Universalist minister, and his daughter, Sara Franke Bowling.
Dr. Franke, who relocated to Little Rock to be closer to his daughter, moved in to Fox Ridge after fulfilling all of its residency requirements — including submission of medical evaluation forms from a local physician. The next day, however — after realizing Dr. Franke is HIV-positive —Fox Ridge officials abruptly ejected Dr. Franke from the facility. A Fox Ridge staffer told Bowling her father’s personal belongings could remain, but that the “body” had to be out by the end of the day.
“I was stunned that my dad was thrown out of his new home,” said Bowling. “The people at Fox Ridge were supposed to make sure that he was comfortable and cared for, and instead they shunned and rejected him, making him feel like a complete outcast.”
Dr. Franke requires no special medical attention beyond daily medication and regular check-ups with a physician, and Fox Ridge is licensed by the state to provide Dr. Franke with the kind of care he and his daughter were seeking for him.
“Federal and state laws exist to protect people from just this sort of unjust treatment,” said Scott Schoettes, HIV Project staff attorney for Lambda Legal. “Unfortunately, this is something we are seeing far too frequently, all across the country. Those tasked with caring for our elderly loved ones need to know that it is illegal to discriminate against someone with HIV based on outdated and misguided beliefs about its transmission.”
Franke and Bowling are seeking damages under the Fair Housing Act, the Arkansas Civil Rights Act and the Arkansas Fair Housing Act, as well as an injunction, under those laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act, preventing Fox Ridge from continuing to engage in this kind of conduct.
“This is about doing the right thing,” said Franke. “I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else — because no one should ever be made to feel the way I did.”
Scott Schoettes, HIV Project Staff Attorney, and Kenneth Upton, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, are handling the case for Lambda Legal. They are joined by co-counsel Gary L. Sullivan of the Tripcony Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. The case is Robert G. Franke and Sara Franke Bowling v. Parkstone Living Center, Inc., dba Fox Ridge at North Little Rock.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/lambda-legal-…
