Rights Laws

DENVER -- A challenge to the constitutionality of a Colorado measure forbidding legal protection for homosexuals begins today in a state district court here.The measure, which put this state at the center of a national debate over gay rights laws, has never been put into effect. Denver District Judge Jeffrey Bayless, who issued an injunction in January preventing the law's enforcement, will preside over the trial.In ordering the injunction, Judge Bayless said: "There is a fundamental right here, and it is the right not to have the state endorse and give effect to private biases."

Tomorrow, Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign into law the most comprehensive gun control legislation Maryland has seen in at least 25 years, a bill that will not only help guard against a mass shooting incident, like December's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but will also help fight the day-to-day violence that plagues Baltimore and other communities. The bill has become doubly important with the failure - at least for the moment - of attempts to tighten gun laws on the federal level, both because it will make Marylanders safer and because it can serve as a model for other states as they seek ways to address gun violence.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court begins a new term Monday, with federal civil rights laws likely to collide repeatedly with the majority justices' hardening views against wide-ranging laws passed by Congress.For eight terms -- the entire time that the present majority of five conservative justices has served together -- those five have combined to cast doubt on or strike down broad federal statutes.But, with one exception, the laws that have fallen or become sharply narrowed were not designed to protect civil rights.

Just as they did when Thomas E. Perez was nominated to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Republicans are seeking to hold up his confirmation to head the U.S. Department of Labor, using any excuse they can think up, no matter how flimsy. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama criticized Mr. Perez, a former Montgomery County councilman and Maryland labor secretary, for his one-time service on the board of CASA de Maryland. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa complained that the president had nominated Mr. Perez for a cabinet post despite a congressional investigation into the Civil Rights Division and questions about whether he engineered a quid pro quo with the city of St. Paul, Minn.

A bill banning discrimination against homosexuals became state law yesterday after organizers of a campaign to overturn the legislation admitted they did not gather enough valid signatures to force a referendum. The measure took effect at 3:31 p.m., when Judge Eugene M. Lerner of Anne Arundel Circuit Court approved an agreement reached by opponents and advocates earlier in the day. "I'm glad you were able to work it out," Lerner said, shaking the hands of lawyers Charles J. Butler and Dwight H. Sullivan, who represented gay rights organizations.

WASHINGTON -- A compromise that Congress accepted three years ago to get a major civil rights bill past President George Bush's opposition led the Supreme Court yesterday to bar any use of that law against acts of bias that happened before 1991.As a result, thousands of women, blacks and other minorities with cases still in the courts will be unable to take advantage of the sweeping new protection written into the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Employers will avoid potential damage claims in millions of dollars that workers could have won under the law.By a vote of 8-1, with only retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun in dissent, the court ruled yesterday that no part of the law is retroactive.

WASHINGTON -- Saying the "real and ultimate agenda" of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is to "reclaim the American conscience," Deval Patrick was sworn in to lead the division.Mr. Patrick, 37, takes over the division that enforces the nation's civil rights laws on matters ranging from race to disabilities. His ascension follows a long and frustrating search by the Clinton administration, which included the withdrawal of the nomination of University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier.

Just as they did when Thomas E. Perez was nominated to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Republicans are seeking to hold up his confirmation to head the U.S. Department of Labor, using any excuse they can think up, no matter how flimsy. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama criticized Mr. Perez, a former Montgomery County councilman and Maryland labor secretary, for his one-time service on the board of CASA de Maryland. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa complained that the president had nominated Mr. Perez for a cabinet post despite a congressional investigation into the Civil Rights Division and questions about whether he engineered a quid pro quo with the city of St. Paul, Minn.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton took advantage of Congress' absence to name NAACP lawyer Bill Lann Lee to the Justice Department's top civil rights post yesterday, despite the objections of Republicans who complain he is too staunchly supportive of affirmative action."

THE announcement by Ward Connerly, a black Californian, and a group of other conservatives that they were forming a commission on race as a counterpoint to President Clinton's panel, which they charged was conducting a monologue rather than a dialogue, again underscores the sharp shift in the civil rights terrain.With the exception of the White Citizens' Council, the equivalent of manicured Kluxism in the South that was formed in 1955 to battle the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, no group in modern memory has so cynically attempted to derail civil rights efforts.

This is National Crime Victims' Rights Week -- a time for the nation and our state to ask about the meaning of justice, both present and future, for those harmed by crime. Our theme this year, "Reshaping the Future, Honoring the Past," calls on us to not only reflect, but also to act. Our first duty is to never forget the impact of crime. I am a crime victim. My husband, Michael, was murdered in a convenience store robbery in 1994. I was left to raise our four boys on my own. I'm happy to report that they have all become wonderful, productive adult men despite what they lost that day. But, even now, the anniversary of that day can bring us to our knees.

WASHINGTON - To the surprise of civil rights advocates, the Supreme Court strengthened workplace anti-discrimination laws yesterday, ruling that employees who say they were punished for complaining of bias can sue for damages. In a pair of decisions, the court concluded that claims of retaliation are covered by long-standing civil rights laws, even though this kind of discrimination was not mentioned specifically in the statutes. This expansion of employee rights stands in sharp contrast to a series of pro-business rulings limiting the rights of workers that were made last year by the Supreme Court.

LONDON - Britain's highest court ruled yesterday that the British government cannot indefinitely detain foreigners suspected of terrorism without charging or trying them. It called the process a violation of European human rights laws. A specially convened panel of judges in the Law Lords ruled 8-1 in favor of nine foreign, Muslim men who have been in detention, most of them in Belmarsh Prison in London, for as long as three years. The prison has been called "Britain's Guantanamo" by human rights groups.

A bill banning discrimination against homosexuals became state law yesterday after organizers of a campaign to overturn the legislation admitted they did not gather enough valid signatures to force a referendum. The measure took effect at 3:31 p.m., when Judge Eugene M. Lerner of Anne Arundel Circuit Court approved an agreement reached by opponents and advocates earlier in the day. "I'm glad you were able to work it out," Lerner said, shaking the hands of lawyers Charles J. Butler and Dwight H. Sullivan, who represented gay rights organizations.

A group that opposes Maryland's gay rights law appears poised to end its months-long fight to force a statewide referendum on the issue. Lawyers for the group, TakeBackMaryland.org, and for gay rights advocates were in negotiations yesterday. The talks were focused on finding a graceful way for the group to give up its effort to put the gay rights law before voters next fall, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Neither side would comment publicly on the talks yesterday.

An Anne Arundel County judge is expected to decide Dec. 17 whether Maryland's gay rights law will go to referendum in next year's election. Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner set the hearing date yesterday. He is presiding over a lawsuit filed by supporters of the law, who contend that petitions calling for the referendum contain invalid signatures and should be thrown out. The judge also issued an order yesterday that requires the referendum's backers to pay part of the $40,000 fee of a special master, who was hired by the court to review petition signatures.

It may be a politically incorrect risk to disagree with those hundreds of thousands of homosexual demonstrators who gathered in Washington, but, no, this decade definitely will not be remembered as "The Gay '90s."That's because there are so many more people in this country who have far worse problems than do homosexual men and lesbians.Consider the issues that were raised at the Washington rally: the right to serve in the military; repealing state sodomy laws; allowing gay marriages; specific civil rights laws for sexual orientation; and more money for AIDS research.

The Reconstruction-era civil rights laws under which Los Angeles police officers Stacey C. Koon and Laurence M. Powell were convicted for the beating of Rodney King, although originally passed to define and protect the rights of newly-freed slaves, have once again proved to be no mere relics of another age.One, Section 242 of Title 18 of the United States Code, originally part of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, prohibits violations of a person's civil rights...

Supporters and opponents of Maryland's gay rights law spent yesterday poring over petitions that will determine whether the statute goes to referendum in next year's election. Their reviews were prompted by a court-appointed special master's finding that thousands of signatures on petitions calling for a referendum vote might not be valid. At issue is a law that would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations, approved by the General Assembly this year after heavy lobbying by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.

A PARENT handed us a pamphlet given to his ninth-grade son in a Baltimore City school. Displaying graphic pictures and language on "safe sex," it encourages teen-agers to experiment with just about every form of sexual behavior. Recently, a 10-year veteran of management called us to describe how he reprimanded a woman for her poor work performance, and because the woman is a lesbian, his employer wrote him up and made him take sensitivity classes. He is certain that he handled this individual with professionalism, treating her no differently from any other employee.