Human Rights back issues from July 2009:
From the Chair . . .
Jul 01, 2009; ... As my first official duty as chair of the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (IRR), I wish to thank Neal Sonnett for his wonderful job as chair this past year. Not only did Neal bring outstanding leadership to the chair's position, but his insights and understanding of the various ...
The Evolution of the American Family
Jul 01, 2009; ... Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), that "[t]he demographic changes of the past century make it difficult to speak of an average American family." Id. at 63. If this is an accurate statement about the current state of affairs, was it once possible to ...
The American Family: A Work in Progress
Jul 01, 2009; ... There is no single definition of "family" in any dictionary or encyclopedia. Further, the understanding of the history of the family is distorted by myths, misconceptions, and generalizations. For example, many people believe that a century ago times were simpler and the family unit was more ...
The Federalization of Family Law
Jul 01, 2009; ... Historically, family law has been a matter of state law. State legislatures define what constitutes a family and enact the laws that regulate marriage, parentage, adoption, child welfare, divorce, family support obligations, and property rights. State courts generally decide family law cases ....
Interstate Recognition of LGBT Families
Jul 01, 2009; ... Family law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people is a confusing patchwork of conflicting state laws. Six states permit same-sex couples to marry. Eight states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex couples to register as partners in civil unions or domestic ...
Advancing the Freedom to Marry in America
Jul 01, 2009; ... The year 2009 marks the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, the defining event celebrated as the beginning of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movement. Those forty momentous years could be divided into two basic periods. The first constitutes the ...
Miscegenation An American Leviathan
Jul 01, 2009; ... The U.S. Supreme Court declared antimiscegenation laws unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, an African American woman, had legally married in Washington, D.C., and were arrested shortly after their return to Virginia. Their ...
Forming Families by Law: Adoption in America Today
Jul 01, 2009; ... Adoptive families are created through the law, not by biology or blood. Although there is a long history in this country of some children being raised by adults other than their biological parents, legal recognition of these families was not generally available until states began enacting formal ...
Family Integrity and Children's Rights A UN Convention Perspective
Jul 01, 2009; ... Normally, a 99 percent approval rating is ideal. Yet even though 99 percent of eligible states have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) since its adoption in 1989, one prominent holdout remains. The United States has not ratified the CRC despite its active role in ...
Assisted Reproduction: Preserving Families and Protecting the Rights of Individuals
Jul 01, 2009; ... People wanting to form families using assisted reproduction technology (ART) do so for a number of reasons, including infertility, aversion to sexual intercourse, avoidance of unprotected sexual intercourse for fear of disease transmission, or eugenic considerations (a subcategory of which may ...
human rights heroes
Jul 01, 2009; ... Evan Wolfson and Mary Bonauto Twenty years ago, only one state prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (Wisconsin). No state and few companies offered domestic partnership benefits. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court in Bowers v. Hardwick upheld the constitutionality of ...