Court turns down student over religious speech
(Washington) The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a student who complained that high school officials violated her constitutional rights when they turned off her microphone during her religion-tinged graduation speech.
The justices said Monday they will not revive a lawsuit filed by Brittany McComb of Henderson, Nev. challenging the …
Tags: Brittany Mccomb, Constitutional Rights, Graduation Speech, Henderson Nev, Microphone, Religion, Religious Speech, School Officials, Supreme CourtSupreme Court gets into R-71 case
The Supreme Court shielded R-71 signatures as it hears a case on open-government laws.
Tags: Court Case, Open Government Laws, Signatures, Supreme CourtCourt considers death sentence for Ohio neo-Nazi
(Washington) The Supreme Court seemed receptive Tuesday to reinstating the death sentence of a flamboyant neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men in Ohio more than a quarter century ago.
Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray told justices during oral arguments that Frank Spisak had a fair trial and deserves death. Cordray urged …
Tags: Death Sentence, Frank Spisak, Neo Nazi, Ohio Attorney General, Oral Arguments, Quarter Century, Richard Cordray, Supreme Court, Three MenAnalysis: Supreme Court update
There is no dramatic sit-in demonstration planned by this weekend’s March on Washington for the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. It was there, during the 1987 March on Washington, that one of the movement’s largest and most intense moments of direct action was staged.
Thousands of gay civil rights supporters …
Tags: Civil Rights Supporters, Demonstration, Gay Civil Rights, Intense Moments, March On Washington, Supreme CourtSupreme Court OK’s release of priest sex abuse docs
(Washington) The Supreme Court refused on Monday to block the release of documents generated by lawsuits against priests in Connecticut for alleged sexual abuse.
The justices turned down a request by the Roman Catholic diocese in Bridgeport, Conn.
Several newspapers are seeking the release of more than 12,000 pages from 23 lawsuits …
Tags: Bridgeport, Conn, Connecticut, Lawsuits, Newspapers, Priest Sex Abuse, Priests, Roman Catholic Diocese, Sexual Abuse, Supreme CourtVanasco: Who’s next on the Supreme Court?
The Daily Beast has the top contenders (though of course, no one actually knows). The Beast names Eric Holder, Diane Wood, Elena Kagan, Cass Sunstein,
I’d love the next choice to be Cass Sunstein (a well-regarded Constitutional law scholar and creative thinker who can explain law to the masses - as …
Tags: Beast, Cass Sunstein, Constitutional Law Scholar, Creative Thinker, Diane Wood, Elena Kagan, Eric Holder, love, Names, Supreme Court, Top ContendersObama names Medal of Freedom recipients, including Harvey Milk …
President Obama, attempting to spotlight those who have acted as “agents of change,” today announced that he will bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, on a cast of living and deceased figures widely known in politics, the arts and sciences, sports and social movements.
The 16 honorees named by the White House today include Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor who led an early movement for gay rights in public life and was assassinated. They include the late Republican Congressman Jack Kemp, a football legend as well, and the ailing Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
The president’s choices, who will be honored at a White House ceremony Aug. 12, include American civil-rights activist the Rev. Joseph Lowery and South African freedom fighter Desmond Tutu. They include a pioneer in sports for women, tennis star Billie Jean King, and the first woman on the Supreme Court, retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
They include actor Sidney Poitier and singer Chita Rivera.
See
Obama names Medal of Freedom recipients, including Harvey Milk …
They include actor Sidney Poitier and singer Chita Rivera.
See
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Maine court upholds IBM heir’s adoption of lover
(Portland, Maine) Maine’s highest court has given a legal victory to a woman who stands to stake a claim to a share of one of America’s premier business fortunes thanks to her adoption by her lesbian partner.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday overturned a 2008 lower court decision that …
Tags: Adoption, Court Decision, Fortunes, Heir, Ibm, Legal Victory, Lesbian Partner, Maine Court, Maine Maine, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Portland Maine, Supreme Court, Supreme Judicial CourtBackers of Gay Marriage Rethink California Push
LOS ANGELES — Discouraged by stubborn poll numbers and pessimistic political consultants, major financial backers of same-sex marriage are cautioning gay rights groups to delay a campaign to overturn California’s ban on such unions until at least 2012.
Earlier this year, many supporters of same-sex marriage seemed eager to mount a 2010 campaign to overturn Proposition 8, which was passed by California voters in November and defined marriage as “between a man and a woman.”
But the timing of another campaign has since been questioned by several of the movement’s big donors, including David Bohnett, a millionaire philanthropist and technology entrepreneur who gave more than $1 million to the unsuccessful campaign to defeat Proposition 8.
“In conversations with a number of my fellow major No on 8 donors,” Mr. Bohnett said in an e-mail message, “I find that they share my sentiment: namely, that we will step up to the plate — with resources and talent — when the time is right.”
“The only thing worse than losing in 2008,” he added, “would be to lose again in 2010.”
The issue of when to go back to the polls was also the central topic at a contentious “leadership summit” held Saturday at a church in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, where about 200 gay rights advocates gathered to discuss their next step. It was the second large meeting of gay leaders since late May when the California Supreme Court ruled against a legal challenge to Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote.
Shortly after the court’s decision, officials at Equality California, one of the largest gay rights groups in California, issued an online plea for donations for a possible 2010 campaign, citing a need to capitalize on anger over the decision and on the seeming momentum from the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in several other states.
But that thinking has apparently evolved.
Marc Solomon, marriage director for Equality California, said he spent June and early July asking the opinions of nearly two dozen California political consultants and pollsters and had been surprised by the almost unanimous opinion that a 2010 race was a bad idea.
“I expected having watched the protests and the real pain that the L.G.B.T. community had experienced that there would be some real measurable remorse in the electorate,” Mr. Solomon said, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “But if you look at the poll numbers since November, they really haven’t moved at all.”
A major factor in any California balloting, of course, is money; campaigns here are remarkably expensive, with a number of costly media markets. The Proposition 8 campaign, for example, cost more than $80 million, with opponents spending some $43 million.
Sarah Callahan, ch
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History Is on My Side, Says Calif. Justice Who Voted Against Gay-Marriage Ban
Carlos Moreno stood alone in May when he dissented from the decision upholding Proposition 8. But the California Supreme Court justice says history will prove him right — that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is illegal discrimination.
“Someday at some point my dissent will be the majority view in California,” he said during an interview in his San Francisco chambers late Wednesday. “I think that’s where the law is headed.”
“Equal protection is either equal or it’s not,” he added. “It’s not the kind of thing you can chip away at.”
Moreno, one of four justices to back same-sex marriage last year and the sole vote against Prop 8 this year, took time to talk to The Recorder about his votes, his brief moment on the Obama administration’s short list for the nation’s highest court, and U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s controversial “wise Latina” comment.
Moreno’s dissent in Strauss v. Horton, 46 Cal.4th 364, came at a touchy time for him. He had been contacted by the Obama administration a week earlier as a possible replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Since President Obama has officially stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, it could be assumed Moreno’s position on marriage and Prop 8 might be troublesome.
But, Moreno said, Obama’s vetters didn’t ask him how his Prop 8 vote — which wasn’t yet public — would go.
“They just asked if there were any high-profile cases — past or present, including on the trial court — that would be the kind of case that would draw attention.”
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