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LGBTQ+ lawyers, policy experts, and activists discuss the latest legal and political news affecting the LGBTQ+ community both in the U.S. and abroad. Hosted by Shain Filcher, Executive Director of the LGBT Bar of NY, with regularly featured guest Prof. Emeritus Arthur S. Leonard of New York Law School.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 26, 2018
What's cake got to do with it?
Tuesday Jun 26, 2018
Tuesday Jun 26, 2018
We call this episode, “What’s Cake Got To Do With It?”. This is because we will discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding Trump’s travel ban and its relation to Masterpiece Cake Shop, Arlene’s Flowers, and the restaurant, Red Hen’s refusal to serve White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders.
For many of us, the travel ban decision left us feeling heartbroken and helpless. The decision reminds us of Korematsu, the SCOTUS decision upholding Japanese-American imprisonment. It does not uphold this country’s most basic principles of freedom and equality.
In a powerful dissent, Justice Sotomayor points out the disconnect between the majority’s ruling in this Hawaii v Trump, “where the majority completely sets aside the President’s charged statements about Muslims as irrelevant,” and the holding in Masterpiece Cakeshop, “where the majority considered the state commissioners’ statements about religion to be persuasive evidence of unconstitutional government action.”
Today, LeGaL was joined on our LGBT Podcast by Lambda Legal’s Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. Together, we discuss the decision in the travel ban case, as well as the Court’s decision yesterday in Arlene’s Flowers, a case involving a same-sex couple that was refused service by a flower shop because they were gay.
Friday Jun 15, 2018
All LGBT Eyes Still on SCOTUS
Friday Jun 15, 2018
Friday Jun 15, 2018
We will not be discussing cake in this podcast. If you want our take on Masterpiece, please have a listen to the special episode we recorded 24 hours after the ruling came down—oh and share it with your friends. Make sure they know that the Supreme Court did not give every homophobe across the country a license to discriminate.
We call this episode. “LGBT eyes still on SCOTUS” That’s because the Supreme Court has received two new petitions asking it to address whether Title VII bars discriminationbecause of sexual orientation, a request from a man who may have been sentenced to
death because he was gay, and the possible sequel to Masterpiece Cakeshop in Arlene’s Flowers, and a request from a transgender asylum recipient whose attempt to get a legalname change is being blocked by an Indiana law.
We will begin by chatting about these cases with Professor Art Leonard of New York Law School. Art is the chief editor and writer of LGBT Law Notes, the most comprehensive monthly publication covering the latest legal and legislative developments affecting the LGBT community here and abroad.Then, we will chat with Art about 2 new rulings involving access to restrooms for transgender students—including more in the Gavin Grimm case.
Finally, Art will let me go on about an area of interest for me, namely 2 rulings in different states on the discriminatory exercise of peremptory strikes to eliminate gay jurors.
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
Masterpiece Cakeshop: Not the Win We Hoped for, Not the Loss We Feared
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
Tuesday Jun 05, 2018
The Supreme Court ruled narrowly against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in Masterpiece Cakeshop, based on concerns that the original case was not decided “with the religious neutrality that the Constitution requires.”
In doing so, the Court also reaffirmed the core American principle that businesses open to the public must be open to all.
The unfortunate result of this ruling is that cases like this will continue to be litigated in the courts. In the meantime, LGBT people will have to go about their day to day lives fearing they might be refused service because of who we are.
It is important to note that the Supreme Court did not change the long-standing rule that businesses open to the public must be open to all. This ruling was limited to facts specific to this case, and the court importantly did not give businesses the broad right to discriminate that the bakery and the Trump administration sought here.
Eric Lesh, Executive Director of the LGBT Bar of NY discusses this case with Professor Art Leonard of New York Law School.