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The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin Francis O'Neill Jan 2000

The First Amendment's Petition Clause As An Alternative Basis For Challenging Voter Initiatives That Burden The Enactment Of Anti-Discrimination Protection For Gays, Lesbians, And Bisexuals, Kevin Francis O'Neill

Cleveland State Law Review

The purpose of my remarks today is to suggest that the First Amendment-specifically, the Petition Clause of the First Amendment provides an alternative basis for vindicating gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights in certain cases. At least in the context of voter initiatives that seek to abolish anti-discrimination protection for sexual orientation, the Petition Clause is a promising alternative to equal protection and substantive due process. My objective here was merely to plant a seed: to identify an alternative basis for vindicating the rights of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals-especially when combatting homophobic voter initiatives like those in Romer and Cincinnati. It's …


Domestic Partnership Benefits: Why Not Offer Them To Same-Sex Partners And Unmarried Opposite Sex Partners, Debbie Zielinski Jan 1999

Domestic Partnership Benefits: Why Not Offer Them To Same-Sex Partners And Unmarried Opposite Sex Partners, Debbie Zielinski

Journal of Law and Health

Employers offering these benefits to same-sex domestic partners only, may face legal challenges such as marital status and sexual orientation discrimination or equal protection arguments from their unmarried heterosexual employees. In addition, states and municipalities have been increasing the potential of such litigation by passing laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and marital status especially in the areas of housing and employment. This Note examines the potential of such legal challenges when employers use the narrow definition in structuring their domestic partner benefit programs. In addition, avoiding challenges by simply not offering benefits will be discussed. However, before …


Hiv-Specific Crime Legislation: Targetting An Epidemic For Criminal Prosecution, Erin M. O'Toole Jan 1995

Hiv-Specific Crime Legislation: Targetting An Epidemic For Criminal Prosecution, Erin M. O'Toole

Journal of Law and Health

A growing number of state legislatures have drafted HIV specific crime statutes which criminalize the intentional transmission of the HIV virus to another. This discussion will focus on the impact of HIV-specific crime statutes on the following issues: confidentiality, the right to privacy, the decision to submit to HIV testing, and how the statutes may or may not succeed in containing the spread of HIV.


Reading, Writing, But No Biting: Isolating School Children With Aids, Carolyn J. Kasler Jan 1989

Reading, Writing, But No Biting: Isolating School Children With Aids, Carolyn J. Kasler

Cleveland State Law Review

AIDS is a unique disease with unknown, unproven risks and undetermined potential for affecting our society's well-being. Due to the age and uncertainty of the disease, it must be addressed differently from any other diseases with which we have been faced in the past. The problems are severe, and barriers facing both victims and non-victims in the school setting are phenomenal. We must not be without compassion for the victims, children innocently contaminated by this devastating disease, for the victims in this country may soon outweigh the unaffected citizens. Presently, we have a duty to prevent the spread of this …