Daily Archives: August 10, 2012 - 3 results

  The Defense of Marriage Act has been ruled unconstitutional by two federal courts, but LGBT marriages have yet to receive federal recognition and the rights and protections that come with it. One area in which this impacts same-sex couples is estate planning and inheritance.         Mobile users click here to view the video.         Lawyers.com Supervising Producer John McCarthy interviews attorney Joan Burda, an estate planning expert who focuses on LGBT issues. Burda …

Religious organizations are up in arms over a federal law that now requires them to provide preventive contraceptive services they don’t agree with in their employee health plans. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (informally known as Obamacare) includes a requirement that employer  health plans cover preventive contraception services with no cost-sharing for employees. While that might seem like a welcome relief to female employees who couldn’t afford birth control before, some religious organizations, and even for-profit companies, are trying …

Fired special ed teacher wins nearly $1 million A public school special education teacher in Oregon won nearly $1 million after he brought the school district to court for wrongfully firing him and violating his rights to free speech, even though he did not renew his teaching license. Michael Wright taught blind and visually impaired students during the 2009-10 school year. That year, the district was given responsibility for managing $2.9 million in state funds to all 850 visually impaired …