Family Law

Judge upholds gay-marriage ban, says contrary rulings rely on ‘ingenuity and imagination’

A federal judge in Puerto Rico has upheld a ban on gay marriage in an opinion calling heterosexual marriage “the fundamental unit of the political order.” U.S. District Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez upheld the Puerto Rico gay-marriage ban on Tuesday in a decision (PDF) that bucks the trend, report the Washington…

Oct 22, 2014 8:56 AM CDT

New law says individuals can’t track each other via GPS once they are warned not to

Under a new state law that took effect on Tuesday in New York, it is now a crime for individuals to stalk each other using global positioning system devices. But such conduct becomes a misdeameanor only after the target notifies the person responsible that such conduct is unwelcome, Syracuse.com reports.…

Oct 21, 2014 5:30 PM CDT

Obama picks favorite SCOTUS decision of his tenure, sees downside to becoming a justice

The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Congress’ power to enact the health-care law isn’t President Obama’s favorite ruling by the court. Neither is the decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act provision denying federal benefits to same-sex married couples. Asked to name the best Supreme Court decision of his…

Oct 21, 2014 7:28 AM CDT

Bank sues attorney and others over $570K wired to Japan in alleged Internet fraud by ‘client’

An Illinois attorney, apparently victimized by a fake client in an Internet scam involving purported settlement payments in a divorce case, has been sued over $570,000 he allegedly wired to Japan without adequate inquiry. Filed last week in federal court in Chicago, the suit by Federal Insurance Company and First…

Oct 20, 2014 2:45 PM CDT

Admissions requests in federal judge’s divorce case are like rhetorical questions, his lawyer says

An Alabama federal judge accused in a domestic battery case was asked to confirm or deny extramarital affairs, domestic violence and prescription drug abuse in now-unsealed files in his 2012 divorce. The Montgomery Advertiser examined the divorce file of U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, which was unsealed last week. Fuller…

Oct 20, 2014 9:29 AM CDT

Federal judges OK same-sex marriage in Arizona and Wyoming; SCOTUS declines Alaska stay

Barriers to same-sex marriages were removed by federal courts in three more states Friday. Federal district judges struck bans in Arizona and Wyoming and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a stay of an earlier ruling by a federal judge in Alaska, Reuters reports. Assuming a temporary stay in…

Oct 17, 2014 5:25 PM CDT

Facebook post informing dad of planned adoption wasn’t adequate notice, top state court says

Pregnant and planning to have her baby adopted, an Oklahoma woman sent a Facebook post to the father to let him know. But that was not sufficient notice to prevent him from later asserting his parental rights, the state’s top court has ruled. “This court is unwilling to declare notice…

Oct 16, 2014 3:25 PM CDT

Missing woman found forgotten in holding area of closed courthouse

A missing persons report Wednesday was soon resolved by a search of a Michigan courthouse. Tara Mathis had been in the Barry County building hours earlier for a hearing in a child-support case and sentenced to 24 days when she told a probate judge she had no money to pay…

Oct 16, 2014 1:10 PM CDT

Sordid or educational? ‘Deadbeat’ TV show shames child-support scofflaws with real courtroom footage

A Louisville, Kentucky, reality TV show that features real-life courtroom footage of defendants accused of failing to pay child support is popular with viewers, but critics are hoping for a cancellation. The “stars” of the WBNA show Deadbeat are two Jefferson district court judges who preside over the cases, one…

Oct 16, 2014 5:45 AM CDT

Judge regrets calling jail about domestic violence suspect but denies willful misconduct

A California judge is facing a legal ethics case after calling a local jail last year about an acquaintance being held in a Fresno County felony domestic violence case. However, a lawyer for Superior Court Judge James Petrucelli said Tuesday that he had not committed official misconduct in doing so…

Oct 15, 2014 12:55 PM CDT

Parents could be liable for 7th-grader’s fake Facebook page about classmate, appeals court says

Whether parents acted appropriately to supervise their son after learning he had created a fake and disparaging Facebook page in the name of a seventh-grade classmate is a question of fact for the jury to decide, a Georgia appeals court says. The page in question was created in the name…

Oct 15, 2014 10:50 AM CDT

Liberal 9th Circuit judges appear to get gay-rights cases in disproportionate numbers, brief asserts

A Nevada group seeking to uphold a ban on gay marriages is using statistics to assert that a federal appeals court does not appear to be selecting judges hearing gay-rights cases in a neutral way. The Coalition for Protection of Marriage questioned the neutrality of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S.…

Oct 14, 2014 7:55 AM CDT

Same-sex marriage allowed in Idaho after SCOTUS and 9th Circuit lift stays

Gay marriages could begin on Wednesday in Idaho after stays were lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court and then the by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit lifted its stay on Monday before lawyers representing gay couples submitted briefs in opposition to the state’s…

Oct 14, 2014 7:22 AM CDT

Is chief justice a possible vote for gay-marriage rights?

Speculation about which Supreme Court justices would vote to strike down bans on gay-marriage often centers on the so-called “Windsor five” who voted to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor. In that 2013 case, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joined with the court’s four liberals…

Oct 10, 2014 5:45 AM CDT

Top state court says judges cannot issue same-sex marriage licenses until federal judge rules

After a U.S. Supreme Court refusal this week to hear appeals from several federal appellate-court rulings that approved same-sex marriage, some observers expected that other states in the same jurisdiction would soon allow same-sex couples to wed, too. But, at the request of the state attorney general, the South Carolina…

Oct 9, 2014 2:55 PM CDT