Little girl's claims at issue in high court case
Court Alerts
A Massachusetts girl's awful experience on a school bus is at the heart of a case argued in the Supreme Court Tuesday over limits on lawsuits about sex discrimination in education.
The 5-year-old kindergarten student in Hyannis, Mass., told her parents that in 2000 a third-grade boy repeatedly made her lift her dress, pull down her underwear and spread her legs.
Local police and the school system investigated, but found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges or definitively sort out the story, according to court records. The district refused to assign the boy to another bus or put a monitor on the bus, records show.
Upset with the school district's response, parents Lisa and Robert Fitzgerald sued the district in federal court under both Title IX, which bars sex discrimination at schools that receive federal money, and a provision of a Civil War era, anti-discrimination law that was designed to enforce the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.
The issue for the court is whether Title IX, enacted in 1972, rules out suits under the older provision.
A federal judge ruled that the Fitzgeralds could not sue under the older law because Congress had subsequently passed Title IX. The Fitzgeralds also lost on their Title IX claims. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.
The justices appeared skeptical of the idea that Congress, in legislation expanding protection from discrimination, would cut back on the ability to sue for violations of constitutional rights. But they also wondered whether the Fitzgeralds ultimately would win their lawsuit.
Related listings
-
FCC appeals Janet Jackson case to Supreme Court
Court Alerts 11/21/2008The Federal Communications Commission has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the indecency case over Janet Jackson's breast-baring performance at the 2004 Super Bowl.The FCC this week appealed a ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in ...
-
Army vet guilty of conspiracy, not murder in Colo.
Court Alerts 11/20/2008A jury acquitted a former Fort Carson soldier of first-degree murder in the slaying of a fellow Iraq war veteran but convicted him of a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder.Louis Bressler, 25, was convicted Wednesday in connection with the De...
-
Ex-NJ state Sen. Bryant guilty of fraud, bribery
Court Alerts 11/19/2008The former chairman of the state Senate's budget committee was convicted Tuesday of bribery and pension fraud, making him one of the most powerful New Jersey public officials found guilty of federal corruption in recent years.Former state Sen. Wayne ...
Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.