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Court hears discrimination case over wedding cake
Top Court Watch |
2013/12/05 14:42
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A Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex ceremony should not be forced to violate his religious beliefs, his attorney told a judge deciding whether the cake-maker should be made to accommodate gay couples. But an attorney representing a gay couple countered Wednesday that the baker's faith doesn't give him a right to discriminate.
At issue in the complaint from David Mullins and Charlie Craig against Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver is whether religious freedom can protect a business from discrimination allegations from gay couples.
Mullins and Craig wanted to buy a cake last year, but when one of the shop owners, Jack Phillips, found out the cake was to celebrate a gay wedding, he turned the couple of away and cited his religious faith.
"(His) faith, whatever it may have to say about marriage for same-sex couples or the expressive power of a wedding cake, does not give the respondents a license to discriminate," Amanda Goad, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told an administrative judge in Colorado's Civil Rights Commission.
Phillips' attorney, Nicolle Martin, said her client shouldn't be forced to ignore his Christian faith while running the business he's had for nearly 40 years. She said Phillips feels "privileged to design and create the cakes that celebrate the joyous events of people's lives." |
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LA airport shooting suspect appears in court
Topics in Legal News |
2013/12/05 14:42
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The man charged with killing a Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding two other agents and a civilian during a shooting rampage at Los Angeles International Airport made his first court appearance Wednesday, still showing signs of the gunshot wounds suffered when he was arrested.
Paul Ciancia hadn't been seen in public since the Nov. 1 attack that created chaos at one of the nation's busiest airports and affected air travel around the country.
The 23-year-old spoke in whispers and showed no emotion during the 10-minute hearing in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles. He's being housed at the facility in federal custody.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bristow asked the diminutive, slender Ciancia if he understood the charges against him.
"Yes," responded Ciancia, who was shackled at his hands and feet and had a bandage on his neck and bruises on the left side of his face.
His lawyers didn't comment on his injuries.
Airport police responding to the rampage shot Ciancia four times, including once in the mouth. He was hospitalized for more than two weeks before being placed in federal custody. |
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Black LA firefighter awarded $1.1m in bias lawsuit
Law Firm Press Release |
2013/12/02 13:30
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Six years after losing in his first trial, a black Los Angeles firefighter was awarded $1.1 million Monday by a jury that found he suffered discrimination during his nearly three-decade career.
After 16 days of deliberations and a seven-week trial, the jurors found in favor of Jabari S. Jumaane in a lawsuit alleging a pattern of discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Jumaane alleged that he was subjected to racial slurs and jokes and that his supervisors falsified his performance evaluations, leading to suspensions and reprimands.
"We are grateful to the jury for this historic verdict which clearly indicts the department and the city for its systemic discrimination and retaliation against black fire members which it has condoned and perpetuated for decades," Jumaane's attorney Nana Gyamfi said in a statement.
Jumaane said he was grateful the jury was able to render the only reasonable verdict.
Attorneys for the city argued that Jumaane's poor performance evaluations were justified, and his harassment allegations were false.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Mike Feuer, said the city hasn't yet chosen its next move. |
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Court fireworks, but Burning Man deal likely done
Topics in Legal News |
2013/12/02 13:30
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Organizers of the annual weeklong celebration of self-expression and eclectic art known as Burning Man and a Nevada county where it is held thought they had resolved their legal dispute over the festival.
And they hoped to get the blessing of a federal judge overseeing the case, and asked him to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this week. Instead, they got an earful from U.S. District Senior Judge Robert C. Jones, and threats that the lawyers in the case should either go back to law school or be disbarred.
Exactly what in the agreement between festival organizers and Pershing County lawyers prompted Jones' criticism was unclear, though he said the agreement amounted to malpractice.
"You committed virtually a fraud on the federal court and the county commission," Jones said. He said he'll file complaints with the state bar association against all lawyers involved.
The two sides, however, believe they still have an agreement in their year-old legal battle over regulation of the annual event leading up to Labor Day in the Black Rock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno.
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Supreme Court Will Take up New Health Law Dispute
Legal Blog News |
2013/11/29 10:40
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The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.
The justices said they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception.
The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts.
The other case is an appeal from Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets. Lower courts rejected the company's claims.
The court said the cases will be combined for arguments, probably in late March. A decision should come by late June.
The cases center on a provision of the health care law that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.
In both instances, the Christian families that own the companies say that insuring some forms of contraception violates their religious beliefs.
The key issue is whether profit-making corporations can assert religious beliefs under the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment provision guaranteeing Americans the right to believe and worship as they choose. Nearly four years ago, the justices expanded the concept of corporate "personhood," saying in the Citizens United case that corporations have the right to participate in the political process the same way that individuals do.
"The government has no business forcing citizens to choose between making a living and living free," said David Cortman of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian public interest law firm that is representing Conestoga Wood at the Supreme Court.
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