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Whitewood V. Wolf
''Whitewood v. Wolf'' is the federal lawsuit that successfully challenged the Pennsylvania Marriage Laws, as amended in 1996 to ban same-sex marriage. The district court's decision in May 2014 held that the Marriage Laws violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. Same-sex couples immediately sought and received marriage licenses and the decision was not appealed. One county clerk sought repeatedly without success to intervene to defend the law. Lawsuit On July 9, 2013, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''United States v. Windsor'', the ACLU filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on behalf of 23 plaintiffs—10 couples, 2 of their children, and a widow—seeking to overturn Pennsylvania's 1996 statutory ban on same-sex marriage. The case, originally ''Whitewood v. Corbett'', was assigned to Judge John E. Jones III. On July 11, Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a named defendant, said that she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Supplement
The ''Federal Supplement'' ( is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National Reporter System. Although the ''Federal Supplement'' is an unofficial reporter and West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly cite the ''Federal Supplement'' for included decisions. Approximately 40 new volumes are published per year. Distinctions Before 1932, federal district court cases were published in the ''Federal Reporter'', which now publishes only case law from the United States Courts of Appeals and the United States Court of Federal Claims; prior series had varying scopes that covered opinions of other federal courts as well. The ''United States Reports'' are the official law reports of the rulings, orders, case tables, and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP ("Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. Since Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s, conservatism has been the dominant ideology of the GOP. It has been the main political rival of the Democratic Party since the mid-1850s. The Republican Party's intellectual predecessor is considered to be Northern members of the Whig Party, with Republican presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison all being Whigs before switching to the party, from which they were elected. The collapse of the Whigs, which had previously been one of the two major parties in the country, strengthened the party's electoral success. Upon its founding, it supported c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Right
The Christian right, or the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity. In the United States, the Christian right is an informal coalition formed around a core of largely white conservative Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. The Christian right draws additional support from politically conservative mainline Protestants and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The movement has its roots in American politics going back as far as the 1940s; it has been especially influential since the 1970s. Its influence draws from grassroots activism as well as from focus on social issues and the ability to motivate the electorate around those issues. The Christian right is notable for advancing socially conservative positions on issues s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alliance Defending Freedom
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to curtail rights for LGBTQ people; expand Christian practices within public schools and in government; and outlaw abortion. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in Washington, D.C. and New York, among other locations. The global arm, Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries. ADF is one of the most organized and influential Christian legal interest groups in the United States based on its budget, caseload, network of allied attorneys, and connections to significant members of the political right. These include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and high-ranking Republicans such as former vice president Mike Pence, former attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions, and US Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley (husband of ADF senio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Certiorari
In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of the lower court be sent to the superior court for review. The term is Latin for "to be made certain", and comes from the opening line of such writs, which traditionally began with the Latin words "''Certiorari volumus''..." ("We wish to be made certain..."). Derived from the English common law, ''certiorari'' is prevalent in countries utilising, or influenced by, the common law''.'' It has evolved in the legal system of each nation, as court decisions and statutory amendments are made. In modern law, ''certiorari'' is recognized in many jurisdictions, including England and Wales (now called a "quashing order"), Canada, India, Ireland, the Philippines and the United States. With the expansion of administrative law in the 19th and 20th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. ( ; born April 1, 1950) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served since January 31, 2006. He is the second Italian American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court—after Antonin Scalia—and the eleventh Catholic. Raised in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, and educated at Princeton University and Yale Law School, Alito served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) before joining the Supreme Court. He is the 110th justice. In 2013, Alito was considered "one of the most conservative justices on the Court". Granick, Jennifer and Sprigman, Christopher (June 27, 2013"The Criminal N.S.A.", ''The New York Times'' He has described himself as a "practical originalist". Alito's majority opinions in lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associate Justice
Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth of Nations countries, as well as for members of the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia, a former United States Trust Territory. In other common law jurisdictions, the equivalent position is called "Puisne Justice". Commonwealth The function of associate justices vary depending on the Court they preside in. In the Australian state of New South Wales, associate justices of the New South Wales Supreme Court hear civil trials and appeals from lower courts amongst other matters. Associate justices can sit either as a single judge or may sit on the New South Wales Court of Appeal. In New Zealand, associate judges of the High Court of New Zealand supervise preliminary pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patty Shwartz
Patty Shwartz (born July 24, 1961) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Early life and education Shwartz was born in Paterson, New Jersey. She grew up in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where she attended Hebrew school and became bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Shalom. She graduated from Pompton Lakes High School.Leichman, Abigail Klein"Blocked judge has roots in Jewish community; Obama nominee impressed her peers at Hebrew school" ''New Jersey Jewish News'', January 11, 2012. Accessed April 10, 2013. "Shwartz graduated from Pompton Lakes High School, received her BA from Rutgers University, and was named Outstanding Woman Law Graduate of her class at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was editor of the Law Review." Shwartz earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University in 1983, with highest honors, and her Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1986, where she was a member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summary Order
In law, a summary order is a determination made by a court without issuing a legal opinion. This disposition is also known as a nonopinion, summary opinion, affirmance without opinion, unpublished order, disposition without opinion, or abbreviated disposition. It is not to be confused with summary judgment, which means a decision without trial. Affirmance without opinion The judgment or order may be affirmed or enforced without opinion when the court determines that an opinion would have no precedential value and that any one or more of the following circumstances exists and is dispositive of a matter submitted for decision: (1) that a judgment of the district court is based on findings of fact that are not clearly erroneous; (2) that the evidence in support of a jury verdict is not insufficient; (3) that the order of an administrative agency is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole; (4) in the case of a summary judgment, that no genuine issue of material fac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Interest
The public interest is "the welfare or well-being of the general public" and society. Overview Economist Lok Sang Ho in his ''Public Policy and the Public Interest'' argues that the public interest must be assessed impartially and, therefore, defines the public interest as the "''ex ante'' welfare of the representative individual." Under a thought experiment, by assuming that there is an equal chance for one to be anyone in society and, thus, could benefit or suffer from a change, the public interest is by definition enhanced whenever that change is preferred to the status quo ''ex ante''. This approach is "''ex ante''", in the sense that the change is not evaluated after the fact but assessed before the fact without knowing whether one would actually benefit or suffer from it. This approach follows the "veil of ignorance" approach, which was first proposed by John Harsanyi but popularized by John Rawls in his 1971 ''Theory of Justice''. Historically, however, the approach ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suspect Class
In United States constitutional law, a suspect classification is a class or group of persons meeting a series of criteria suggesting they are likely the subject of discrimination. These classes receive closer scrutiny by courts when an Equal Protection claim alleging unconstitutional discrimination is asserted against a law, regulation, or other government action, or sometimes private action. When a law or government action affects a group that falls under a "suspect classification," courts apply the strict scrutiny standard in reviewing the constitutional validity of a law or action. Criteria The United States Supreme Court has mentioned a variety of criteria that, in some combination, may qualify a group as a suspect class, but the Court has not declared that any particular set of criteria are either necessary or sufficient to qualify.Wintemute, Robert, Sexual Orientation and Human Rights' (1995) Some of the criteria that have been cited include: * The group has historically be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generally subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, while asexuality (the lack of sexual attraction to others) is sometimes identified as the fourth category. These categories are aspects of the more nuanced nature of sexual identity and terminology. For example, people may use other labels, such as ''pansexual'' or '' polysexual'', or none at all. According to the American Psychological Association, sexual orientation "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions". ''Androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' are terms used in behavioral science to describe sexual orientation as an alternative to a gender binary conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
