Tag Archive for "court"

Posts Tagged court

Woman imprisoned for converting to Islam tells Indian Supreme Court: “I want freedom”

On Monday this week, a young Muslim woman faced the Indian Supreme Court, finally allowed to speak after being imprisoned for converting to Islam and marrying a man of her choice. After months of petitions, news coverage, and speeches from everyone but her, she said laid out her demand clearly: “I want freedom.”

By Sesali B. • 11 years ago

Who do we trust to name their own child?

Yesterday we included a link in our Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet about a Tennessee judge who imposed her own religious views and changed the name of a baby against his parents’ wishes. But as rapper Meek Millz said, “it’s levels to this shit” and this is more than an issue of violating the separation between church and state. The racial and family dynamics in this story are important and deserve some unpacking.

Jaleesa Martin and the father of her son, of New Port Tennessee, could not agree on their baby’s last name and were going to child support court to resolve the issue. They did, however, agree on the first name, which was Messiah. Judge Lu Ann Ballew came ...

By zerlina • 13 years ago

Rape victims and anonymity

This week Nafissatou Diallo, the accuser in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case, broke her silence in a print interview with Newsweek and a televison interview with ABC News An alleged rape victim coming forward in such a public way is unprecedented. Rape shield laws have historically protected victims of sexual assault. Because rape is considered especially harmful compared to other crimes, extra measures are taken to ensure victims recover and heal without public criticism.

Even with rape shield laws, though, victims in high profile cases are routinely smeared and accused of lying. Their identities are frequently leaked to the media and the public is then able to pry into their private lives and sexual histories, ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 13 years ago

First openly gay man confirmed as U.S. federal judge

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Paul Oetken, a former Clinton administration lawyer and out gay man, as a federal judge. Via The New York Times:

Mr. Oetken won Senate confirmation by a vote of 80 to 13. He will take his seat as a federal judge in Manhattan after President Obama signs his commission, which may be as soon as this week, according to the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.

“When there are so many qualified gay and lesbian people and none of them get on the bench, you scratch your head and wonder why,” said Mr. Schumer, who recommended the appointment last year to Mr. Obama. “But the old barriers that existed in society are crumbling. ...

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Paul Oetken, a former Clinton administration lawyer and out gay man, as a federal judge. Via The New York Times:

Mr. Oetken won Senate confirmation by a vote of 80 to 13. He ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

Quick hit: the New York Times editorial board on anti-abortion legislation

Today, the NYT’s editorial board is applauding the striking down of anti-abortion policies of the kind we’ve seen in Kansas and Indiana. In Indiana, the GOP has tried to de-fund Planned Parenthood, and in Kansas, the governor signed a law that would place on abortion clinics requirements so strict that it would be almost impossible for clinics to adhere to them. In both states, the courts have struck these measures down. But, there’s still a real threat to women’s health, in the form of budget cuts:

While these rulings are preliminary, each is a determination that enforcing the law would cause irreparable harm and that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail at trial. They do not, however, address other threats to ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 13 years ago

WI Supreme Court Justice accused of assaulting a female colleague

Wow. David Prosser, a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice and cheerleader for Gov. Walker’s anti-union efforts, has been accused of physically assaulting his colleague Justice Ann Walsh Bradley during a recent argument. TPM reports:

New details are emerging in this weekend’s story that Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser — a member of the court’s 4-3 conservative majority who was just re-elected to a ten-year term in a heated race that involved a recount and vote-tabulating controversies — allegedly attacked liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley during an argument over the court’s recent decision regarding the upholding of Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union legislation. Now, Bradley is speaking up, and saying publicly that she was assaulted by Prosser.

“The ...

New details are ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

“Plagiarism is something people are expelled or suspended for, but there seems to be a near-infinite tolerance for rape.”

**Trigger warning**

It was announced yesterday that a group of current Yale undergraduates and young alumni have filed a Title IX complaint against the University. The complaint was filed several weeks ago and yesterday, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that it will begin an investigation into how the University handles complaints of sexual harassment and assault.

The complainants, a group that comprises sixteen male and female students, allege that because the University has failed to properly respond to sexual harassment and assault, Yale campus is a “hostile environment,” that, in the words of one of the complainants, “precludes women from having the same equal opportunity to the Yale education as their male counterparts.”

The Yale Herald ...

By Ann • 14 years ago

Women Who Rule (on the Supreme Court)

Dahlia Lithwick on whether having three women on the Supreme Court will “change the court in any real way”:

For centuries, the Supreme Court has been zealously opining on whether or not women are fit to practice law, or tend bar, work a 10-hour day, support their families, use birth control, or terminate their pregnancies. For most of that time, women influenced that debate only if they were lucky enough to be married to a justice. The presence, for the first time, of three women on the Supreme Court may not reshape constitutional law in any profound way. It may not even change the court all that much. But as the justices continue to decide the cases that affect the ...

Dahlia Lithwick on whether having three women on the Supreme Court will “change the court in any real way”:

For centuries, the Supreme Court has been zealously opining on whether or not women are fit to practice ...