On This Coming Out Day, The Court Must Let the LGBTQ+ Community In
“Representation matters. I wore my father’s prayer hat, and stood at the steps of the Supreme Court, waving our flag.” – Ibrahim “Ibby” Baig On June 15th, 2020, Ibrahim “Ibby” Baig awaited, like many others, for a decision of paramount importance to the lives of gay Americans to come down from a court which has [...]
The Supreme Court created quite a stir recently when it held in Bostock v. Clayton Country, Georgia that Title VII, the major federal anti-employment-discrimination law, protected gay and transgender employees on the same basis as heterosexual employees. Deciding three companion cases involving different employees, the Court filled a major gap in employee protection – most [...]
Obscuring the Lines of Truth: The Alarming Implications of Deepfakes
Technology has always been a necessary evil but the advent of Deepfake has tilted the balance more towards the evil side. Deepfakes are an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based technology used to morph a person’s face onto another and manipulate voice recordings. Deepfakes have been increasingly used to create doctored videos and sound recordings which on [...]
Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he was extending the “NYS on Pause” restrictions until May 15th, halting all non-essential business in the state. Though the governor’s actions will ensure the health and safety of New Yorkers as the state continues battling the novel Coronavirus, “NYS on Pause” restrictions have tremendously [...]
Federal judges deny request to release California inmates due to COVID-19 crisis
A special US District Court panel of three judges on Saturday denied California inmates’ request that a certain category of inmates be released in order to allow the physical distancing necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The request, which was filed on March 25, invoked an order entered by the special panel in 2009 [...]
Texas files suit in Supreme Court over California state-funded travel ban
Texas filed an original action in the US Supreme Court Monday to overturn California’s ban on state-funded travel to a list of 11 states—including Texas—that have adopted policies that California has deemed discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. California Assembly Bill 1887, enacted in 2016 and expanded in 2017, bans state-funded or [...]
California governor announces new pardon initiative for those prosecuted for being gay
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that his office would be launching a new initiative to pardon people who have prosecuted in California for being gay. Inspired by a call to posthumously pardon Bayard Rustin, a humanitarian and civil rights leader who was convicted of a misdemeanor vagrancy offense for consensual adult homosexual activity, [...]
Federal judge rules twin son of same-sex couple entitled to US citizenship
A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday granted a twin son of a same-sex couple US birthright citizenship. The State Department refused to grant two-year-old Ethan Dvash-Banks citizenship but granted his twin brother citizenship. Ethan and his twin brother, Aiden, were born from the same surrogate mother; [...]
On November 8, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit became the first appellate court to enter one of the most high-profile legal fights against the Trump Administration. In lead and concurring opinions running 99 pages, three appellate judges in Regents of the University of California v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security affirmed [...]
While transgender people have existed since the dawn of time, the last decade has seen an increasing spotlight on the community and transgender people’s right to recognition and protection. While this has taken on many different angles, federal and state administrations have come under scrutiny in the last few weeks for choices to exclude transgender people [...]
