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India’s Supreme Court strikes down law that punished gay sex
Law Firm News |
2018/09/11 12:02
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India’s Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a colonial-era law that made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a landmark victory for gay rights that one judge said would “pave the way for a better future.”
The 1861 law, a relic of Victorian England that hung on long after the end of British colonialism, was a weapon used to discriminate against India’s gay community, the judges ruled in a unanimous decision.
“Constitutional morality cannot be martyred at the altar of social morality,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra said, reading the verdict. “Social morality cannot be used to violate the fundamental rights of even a single individual.”
As the news spread, the streets outside the courthouse erupted in cheers as opponents of the law danced and waved flags.
“We feel as equal citizens now,” said activist Shashi Bhushan. “What happens in our bedroom is left to us.”
In its ruling, the court said sexual orientation was a “biological phenomenon” and that discrimination on that basis violated fundamental rights.
“We cannot change history but can pave a way for a better future,” said Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
The law known as Section 377 held that intercourse between members of the same sex was against the order of nature. The five petitioners who challenged the law said it was discriminatory and led to gays living in fear of harassment and persecution.
Jessica Stern, the executive director of the New York-based rights group OutRight Action International, said the original law had reverberated far beyond India, including in countries where gay people still struggle for acceptance.
“The sodomy law that became the model everywhere, from Uganda to Singapore to the U.K. itself, premiered in India, becoming the confusing and dehumanizing standard replicated around the world,” she said in a statement, saying “today’s historic outcome will reverberate across India and the world.”
The court’s ruling struck down the law’s sections on consensual gay sex, but let stand segments that deal with such issues as bestiality.
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The Latest: Bolton says international court 'dead to us'
Law Firm Press |
2018/09/10 12:07
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The United States is pledging to use "any means necessary" to protect American citizens and allies from International Criminal Court prosecution.
President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, says the court is "illegitimate" and "for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."
Bolton delivered his remarks Monday to the conservative Federalist Society in Washington. He says that the court threatens the "constitutional rights" of Americans and U.S. sovereignty.
The ICC, which is based in the Hague, has a mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute that established the court, but his successor, George W. Bush, renounced the signature, citing fears that Americans would be unfairly prosecuted for political reasons.
The State Department is announcing the closure of the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington.
The department says that the PLO "has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel."
It accuses the Palestinian leadership of condemning a yet-to-be-released Trump administration plan to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It also contends that the PLO is refusing to engage with the U.S. government on peace efforts.
In its statement Monday, the department says its decision is also consistent with administration and congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court.
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Court boosts rights of students accused of sexual misconduct
Court News |
2018/09/09 12:04
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Students accused of sexual misconduct at public universities have the right to cross-examine accusers at disciplinary hearings, a federal appeals court said Friday in a sweeping decision that will extend to public schools in four states.
The University of Michigan violated the rights of a male student by refusing to allow him or a representative to question witnesses in an alleged incident of sexual misconduct at a "Risky Business"-themed fraternity party, the court said.
A university investigator found insufficient evidence that a student had committed misconduct. But that conclusion was overturned by a campus appeals panel after two closed sessions.
The student, identified in court papers as John Doe, agreed to leave the school in 2016 instead of face expulsion, just 13.5 credits shy of getting a bachelor's degree in business. His attorney said he was made a "scapegoat" by the university to show that it was aggressively responding to complaints.
"If a public university has to choose between competing narratives to resolve a case, the university must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to cross-examine the accuser and adverse witnesses in the presence of a neutral fact-finder," said Judge Amul Thapar, writing for a three-judge panel at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge David Lawson. The ruling is binding in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, the four states covered by the 6th Circuit.
"Providing Doe a hearing with the opportunity for cross-examination would have cost the university very little," Thapar wrote. "As it turns out, the university already provides for a hearing with cross-examination in all misconduct cases other than those involving sexual assault."
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the decision was being reviewed.
"This is a very huge victory for the constitutional rights of students," Doe's attorney, Deborah Gordon, said. "Sexual-misconduct proceedings have to be a search for the truth. The University of Michigan, by hiding the ball from both sides, has really done a huge disservice to the entire issue of sexual misconduct on campus. The stakes are so high."
It's unclear what will happen next. But Gordon said her client, who had a 3.94 grade-point average, wants his college degree. |
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Senate begins final day of Supreme Court nominee hearings
U.S. Court News |
2018/09/07 12:06
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Senators began the fourth and final day of hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Friday, but with the nominee finished answering questions the day they seemed unlikely to alter his path to confirmation.
Senate Democrats worked into the night Thursday in a last, ferocious attempt to paint Kavanaugh as a foe of abortion rights and a likely defender of President Donald Trump. But after two marathon days in the witness chair in a Senate hearing room, Kavanaugh appeared on his way to becoming the court's 114th justice.
The 53-year-old appellate judge stuck to a well-rehearsed script throughout his testimony, providing only glimpses of his judicial stances while avoiding any serious mistakes that might jeopardize his confirmation. In what almost seemed like a celebration Thursday, Kavanaugh's two daughters returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room for the final hours of testimony, accompanied by teammates on Catholic school basketball teams their father has coached.
On the schedule Friday are more than two dozen witnesses on both sides of the nomination fight. Democratic witnesses include John Dean, Richard Nixon's White House counsel who cooperated with prosecutors during the Watergate investigation, and Rochelle Garza, the legal guardian for a pregnant immigrant teenager whose quest for an abortion Kavanaugh would have delayed last year.
On the Republican side, former solicitors general Theodore Olson and Paul Clement will testify in support of the nominee, along with former students, law clerks and the mother of a basketball player Kavanaugh coached.
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