Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog presents the matter succinctly: At their Conference today, the Justices will consider petitions raising federal constitutional issues related to same-sex marriage. These are the most significant cases these nine Justices have ever considered, and probably that they will ever decide. I have never before seen cases that I believed would be discussed […]
Archive | Sexual Orientation
Winning Minnesota
By Dale Carpenter on November 8, 2012 3:06 am in Democracy, Gay Rights, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
Most of the post-election attention to the gay-marriage ballot fights has focused on the inspiring wins in Maine, Maryland, and Washington state, where same-sex marriages will now be legal. But equally important in the long-term is what happened in Minnesota on Tuesday. Eighteen months ago, when the state legislature voted to place a ban on same-sex marriages on […]
The Second Circuit’s DOMA Decision
By Dale Carpenter on October 22, 2012 5:44 pm in DOMA, Equal Protection, Federalist Society, Sexual Orientation
At the Federalist Society’s Supreme Court blog, I offer some thoughts on the Second Circuit’s decision in Windsor v. United States, which held the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. The post concludes with a thought on what direction the Supreme Court might take when it confronts the constitutionality of DOMA: Even if the Court is […]
Second Circuit Strikes Down DOMA Section 3
By Dale Carpenter on October 18, 2012 12:28 pm in Equal Protection, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
In a 2-1 opinion by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, a conservative appointed by the first President Bush, the Second Circuit has joined the unanimous chorus of federal courts striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages legalized by individual states. The dissenter was Judge Chester Straub, who was appointed […]
Case Alleging Discrimination Against Straight Car Renters May Go Forward
So holds Evenchik v. Avis Rent a Car Systems, LLC (S.D. Cal. Sept. 17, 2012): According to the Complaint, Plaintiff rented a car from AVIS in July 2011, in the County of San Diego, California. She was charged $311.36. According to the Complaint, at that time AVIS gave large price discounts to members of two […]
Constitutional Law Professors: 87% Support Same-Sex Marriage, But Only 54% Believe It Is Constitutionally Mandated
By Dale Carpenter on September 7, 2012 11:08 am in Academia, California, Constitutional Law, Sexual Orientation, Supreme Court
Eighty-seven percent of constitutional law professors back marriage for same-sex couples, and 7 out of 10 believe the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, but only a slight majority of 54% think the federal Constitution requires states to recognize same-sex marriages. That’s the result of a survey of 485 constitutional law professors that I […]
Federal Judge in Hawaii Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Claim
By Dale Carpenter on August 11, 2012 4:11 pm in Constitutional Law, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Same-Sex Marriage, Sexual Orientation
In Hawaii, gay couples may enter civil unions with all the state-based rights and legal protections of marriage, but without the official designation of being “married.” Same-sex couples sued to have the status of marriage, urging that they had a fundamental right to marry under the Due Process Clause and that the state could not […]
Law Professor Calls for Denying Tax Exemptions to the Catholic Church, Orthodox Synagogues, and Other Groups That Discriminate Based on Sex
By Eugene Volokh on June 12, 2012 4:14 pm in Religion and the Law, Sex Discrimination, Sexual Orientation
See Caroline Mala Corbin, Expanding the Bob Jones Compromise, in Matters of Faith: Religious Experiences and Legal Responses in the United States (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press). This isn’t the first such call, but it still struck me as noteworthy. Indeed, the rationale — that exemptions are generally denied to racially discrimination groups, so they should […]
When In Doubt, Do Right
Today the President of the United States explicitly endorsed the idea that gay couples and their families should have the freedom to marry. He had already done so as a practical matter by refusing to defend the constitutionality of what he carefully mislabelled the “Defense Against Marriage Act” and by publicly opposing state constitutional amendments against marriage. But in the past […]
Higher Registration Requirements for Male Sex Offenders Who Committed the Offense Against a Male Victim
803 Code Mass. Regs. § 1.40(9)(c)(2) provides that, in determining a sex offender’s likelihood of recidivism — which in turn bears on what sort of registration requirements apply to the sex offender — one factor should be whether the offender is a “male offender who commits a sex offense, as defined in M.G.L. c. 6, […]
California Bill Would Ban Psychotherapy Aimed at Changing Under-18-Year-Olds’ Same-Sex “Desires, Attraction, or Conduct”
By Eugene Volokh on April 25, 2012 3:25 pm in Children's Rights, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom, Sexual Orientation
The bill is SB 1172, and it bans “psychotherapy” of under-18-year-olds “aimed at altering the sexual or romantic desires, attractions, or conduct of a person toward people of the same sex so that the desire, attraction, or conduct is eliminated or reduced or might instead be directed toward people of a different sex.” This so […]
Speaking Engagements This Week
By Dale Carpenter on April 10, 2012 12:28 pm in Flagrant Conduct: Lawrence v. Texas, Gay Rights, Sexual Conduct Restrictions, Sexual Orientation, Supreme Court
This week I’ll be discussing my new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, at two different venues. On Thursday, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice will sponsor a speech at Harvard Law School from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Details are available here. On Friday evening at 7:00 p.m., I’ll be speaking […]
Anti-“Harassment” Order Based on Letters to Employer Alleging a Catholic School Teacher Was Gay
I’m writing an article on the First Amendment, criminal harassment law, and the constitutional distinction between speech said to a particular objecting person and speech said to the public; and in the process, I ran across this 2001 case that I thought I’d mention, since it could equally come up today. Minnesota law provides, in […]
May “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe” T-Shirt Be Banned from Public High School as “Indecent” and “Sexual”?
That’s what the Wayne (Ohio) Local School District Board of Education apparently believes. Waynesville High School Principal Randy Gebhardt barred high school student Maverick Couch from wearing this T-shirt, and when his action was challenged, the school district lawyer responded: It is the position of Wayne Local School District Board of Education that the message […]
NYT Sunday Book Review of “Flagrant Conduct”
By Dale Carpenter on March 18, 2012 9:51 pm in Flagrant Conduct: Lawrence v. Texas, Gay Rights, Sexual Orientation
In today’s Times Book Review section, Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian David Oshinsky reviews my new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas. I promise not to make a habit of posting these notices, but I’m quite honored by his review, as I have been by several other recent reactions to the book.