Legal Issues and Politics

The Pacific Justice Institute has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to defend Prop 8 in the appeal process. One of the biggest concerns right now for the proponents of Prop 8 is that the Circuit Court of Appeals might not hear the case because they do not have standing. The interesting thing is that almost exactly one year ago, this group and the other Religious Right people loved the Attorney General of Wisconsin for NOT defending the law when Wisconsin passed its domestic partnership law and a case was brought up against it.

A Texas court of appeals has reversed a lower court’s ruling that called the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The case started when two men who were legally married in Massachusetts wanted to get a divorce in Texas. Texas says they cannot get divorced because they are not legally married in Texas, but the men are saying that they can’t marry other people because they are legally married already. This new ruling by the appeals court brings the couple back to where they cannot divorce and that the marriage ban is still in effect. Again the court used the whole same-sex-marriage-is-not-a-right-because-it-hasn’t-been-done-before-in-Texas excuse. The next step is the states Supreme Court. (Hopefully, Texas’ Supreme Court will reverse that decision. If not though, the couple should take this to federal court. Since DOMA stops Full Faith and Credit on gay marriage what happens if one of the guys marries a woman and then moves to Massachusetts? Now that guy is legally married to two people but the federal government only sees one marriage.)

In June, two US Marines were arrested in Savannah, GA, after beating a gay man they claimed had winked at them. The victim was hospitalized after suffering two seizures at the site of the attack. On Friday, the Savannah DA announced that the crime will not be charged as a hate crime because it is not a felony. “For a crime to be a felony [which a hate crime is considered to be] there has to be proof of a sustained injury. It’s my understanding that the two men only punched Daly. His medical records could not upgrade the charge from a misdemeanor to a felony.”

Toni Braxton now has another home that is in foreclosure. First it was her condo in Century City and now it is her house in Henderson, Nevada.

For the first time ever, a court in China will hear a case of a man denied a job because he is HIV positive. “The fact that the People’s Court has accepted the case indicates that the rule of law in China is progressing.”