April 16th, 2009 by Leeds Morelli & Brown
Newsday is reporting that Governor David Paterson is supportive of legislation legalizing gay marriage in New York. This movement in New York to legislatively legalize gay marriage comes on the heels of the states of Iowa and Vermont legalizing gay marriage. Currently, there are two other states aside from Iowa and Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where gay marriage is legal.
While Newsday has reported that Governor Paterson faces staunch opposition to legalizing gay marriage in New York, the solution may be in the courts rather than in the legislature under the doctrine of comity. There is currently a split among the New York trial courts whether to recognize a marriage that is valid in another country. Currently, in 2006, the New York Court of Appeals held in the case of Robles v. Hernandez, 855 N.E.2d 1 (N.Y. 2006) that a gay marriage validly recognized under Canadian law was not valid under New York law based on the doctrine of comity, whereby a judicial tribunal gives recognition, reciprocity, and respect to foreign judgments. However, Chief Justice Judith Kaye authored a vehement dissent in the case, characterizing the Court’s decision as an “unfortunate misstep.” Id. at 34. (C.J. Kaye, dissenting). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Discrimination |
April 8th, 2009 by Leeds Morelli & Brown
CNN reports that on Friday, April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law that banned same-sex marriage. The decision affirmed a 2007 decision by a lower court that Iowa’s 1998 law, which limited marriage to heterosexual couples, violated the equal protection clause of the state’s constitution. www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/08/30/iowa.samesexmarriage/index.html
This landmark decision makes Iowa the third state in the United States, following Massachusetts and Connecticut, which allows same-sex couples to marry. The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision struck the language from Iowa Code Section 595.2, which limited civil marriage strictly to a man and a woman, directing the remaining statutory language to be interpreted and applied in a way that gives homosexuals the right to marry. The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa Constitution must be declared void, “even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion.”
Other states, including Vermont and New Hampshire, have taken steps toward legalizing same-sex marriage. The Vermont Senate and House have voted to legalize homosexual marriage, but Vermont’s governor has said he will veto the measure. However, Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as New Jersey, allow civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Discrimination |
April 3rd, 2009 by Leeds Morelli & Brown
Legal Blog
The Associated Press reports that a mother in Western Pennsylvania is accused of drugging her thirteen-year-old daughter so that the mother’s boyfriend could impregnate the daughter without her knowing. The mother, thirty-two, is no longer able to have children, but still wanted to have a baby with her forty-year-old boyfriend. The mother has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and the boyfriend is facing several counts of attempted rape. Like in Pennsylvania, it is against New York State law to endanger the welfare of a child. The law is New York Penal Law Section 260.10 - Endangering the Welfare of a Child. http://wings.buffalo.edu/law/bclc/web/NewYork/ny3(b).htm.
There were three incidents that occurred in the mother’s home in Uniontown, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, according to the criminal complaint. The daughter informed the police the plot was apparently hatched sometime in December after she rejected her mother’s proposal that she allow the boyfriend to impregnate her and then marry him. In the following months, the boyfriend tried to rape the daughter three times. The first time, in February, the daughter was alone with the boyfriend while her mother went out to buy pizza, according to the criminal complaint. The boyfriend began groping her and she kicked him away, the documents stated. A few weeks later, the daughter believes her mother spiked her Pepsi with rum, according to police. The daughter informed them she felt ill after drinking the Pepsi, passed out and vomited. She was partially naked when she woke up with the boyfriend in the room, according to the criminal complaint. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Divorce |