hunter of justice

The week ahead: October 24, 2011

Tuesday October 25 - "All Children Matter," an event at which LGBT, allied, and child welfare-focused organizations will release the first comprehensive report documenting the experiences of the 2 million children with LGBT parents and how they are hurt and could be helped by the legal system. Live webcast 10 am to 12 noon.

Thursday October 27 - The final set of briefs from the plaintiffs is due in Gill v. OPM, pending in the First Circuit. 

Also October 27 - Hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction in PFLAG v. Camdenton School District, in which the ACLU is challenging the use of filtering software that blocks all LGBT-support sites, pending before U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Friday October 28 - Deadline for submissions to the LGBTQ Policy Journal of the Harvard Kennedy School.

The week ahead: October 17, 2011

 Thursday, October 20 -  Oral argument before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Planned Parenthood of Indiana v. Commissioner of the State Department of Health. The state is appealing a preliminary injunction issued against enforcement of a new law to defund Planned Parenthood that would end its ability to accept Medicaid (low income) patients.

Also October 20 - New York City - The Association of the Bar of the City of New York will present a CLE program on "Defense of Marriage Act Litigation: Strategy, Tactics and Theory" from 6 to 8 pm at the City Bar building on 44th Street.

Friday, October 21 - Oral argument before Judge White of the Northern District of California in Golinski v OPM. This is another one of those cases in which counsel for House Republicans is defending the constitutionality of DoMA, since the Justice Department has declined to do so. UPDATE - This hearing has been rescheduled for December 16.

Also October 21 - Los Angeles - Loyola Law School is hosting a day long conference on LGBT Identity and the Law; open to the public.

The week ahead: October 10, 2011

Monday October 10 - Deadline for workshop proposals for the Creating Change Conference, to be held January 27-29, 2012 in Baltimore.

Tuesday, October 11 - Supreme Court may announce whether it will grant cert in Adar v. Smith, the gay adoption case in which Louisiana officials refused to recognize an out-of-state two-parent adoption. Adar was on the Court's conference calendar last Friday. If the Justices reached a decision during conference on whether to accept the case, the announcement is likely to be made on Tuesday. If there was no decision at conference, the case will be re-listed for a future conference.

Also October 11 - Briefs due in Ninth Circuit on whether videotapes of Prop 8 trial should remain under seal pending a decision on whether District Court Judge Ware's order releasing them to the public was correct.

Wednesday, October 12 - Today is the deadline for those seeking to repeal the California FAIR Education Act by voter referendum to turn in the signatures they have gathered. If they meet the requirement of just under 505,000 valid signatures, the question will go on the 2012 ballot.

Friday and Saturday, October 14 and 15 - UCLA Queer Studies Conference "will explore and exploit issues of fashion, queerly construed." Sounds like fun. More information here.

The week ahead: October 3, 2011

It's going to be a big week at the Supreme Court. Here's what to watch for:

Wednesday, October 5 - The Supreme Court will hear argument in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, a case in which the EEOC is seeking to block use of the "ministerial exception," - under which religious entities are exempt from application of any anti-discrimination laws - in a case involving the firing of a religious school teacher who filed a complaint of disability discrimination. The case is being litigated on a retaliation theory; the school asserts that filing cases against others within the faith violates their beliefs and that the ministerial exception blocks plaintiff's retaliation claim. The case is on appeal from a Sixth Circuit decision.

Also October 5 - Supreme Court Justices Breyer and Scalia will testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary at a hearing on "Considering the Role of Judges Under the Constitution of the United States" at 2:30 pm.  The hearing will be webcast.

Friday, October 7 - At the Justices' private conference meeting, the Supreme Court will decide whether to grant cert in Adar v. Smith, a case in which Louisiana officials denied recognition of a two-same-sex parent adoption from another state.

 

The week ahead: September 26, 2011

Coming up this week:

Tuesday, September 27 - Due date for a petition for rehearing en banc before the Ninth Circuit in Diaz v. Brewer

Saturday, October 1 - Slutwalk to end excuses for rape - New York City. Slutwalk began in Toronto in January as a spontaneous community response to a Toronto police official quoted as saying that if women didn't want to be raped, they shouldn't dress like sluts. Since then there have been walks in Boston, DC, Chicago and other cities.

Sunday, October 2 - The scheduled date for Belgrade Pride, an event that has been iffy because of the threat of anti-gay violence and the hesitation of some local officials to guarantee police protection for the pride marchers. The 2009 parade was canceled; last year it went forward. This year - stay tuned.

The week ahead: September 19, 2011

Here's what coming up this week:

Monday, September 19 - Deadline for paper proposals to present at the next Feminist Legal Theory conference at Emory Law. The theme for the next session is "Structuring Resilience, which will examine "the political and theoretical possibilities inherent in thinking about justice and state responsibility in terms of human vulnerability.”  

Tuesday, September 20 - Truly a red letter day as DADT officially, finally, conclusively dies (Other issues related to the military will continue, however; see my post on Tuesday.)

Thursday, September 22 - The briefs from the United States (the original defendant) and the House Republican Legal Group (the only entity actively defending DoMA) are due in the First Circuit in Gill v. OPM

Also Thursday, September 22 - Oral argument before the Court of Federal Claims in Collins v. United States, in which plaintiff is challenging the policy under which service members discharged under DADT received half, instead of full, separation pay

Friday, September 23 - Deadline for paper proposals on any topic pertaining to legal feminism for the conference of the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network to be held at GW Law School on January 4, 2012.