Justice watch: Keeping an eye on the law
Affirmative action denied
SAN FRANCISCO - A Superior Court judge has ruled that a two-decade-old affirmative action program in San Francisco violates a ban on race and gender preferences approved by voters in 1996.
Judge James L. Warren said the city's public-contracting rules, which include giving minority and women-owned businesses special notice of application opportunities and a 10 percent deduction from their bids, is an unconstitutional breach of Proposition 209, the 1996 state ballot measure that eliminated race- and gender-based government programs.
San Francisco is one of only a handful of cities that still apply affirmative action in contracting.
A spokesman for the city attorney says the city will appeal the decision.
PITTSBURGH - In cases being closely watched by home-schooling advocates, two Pennsylvania families have filed lawsuits under the state Religious Freedom Protection Act challenging the state's home-school reporting requirements.
The act allows people to challenge any laws they believe impose "substantial burdens upon the free exercise of religion without compelling justification."
The two families home-school for religious reasons and object to the need to provide detailed information to the state about their children's learning programs.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. - A man who married his partner of 23 years after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts is having trouble getting a new passport.
Donald Henneberger, formerly Donald Smith, recently received a letter from the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, N.H., denying his request for a name change on his passport. The center said it would not recognize a marriage license for a same-sex couple as proof of a name change.
The letter from the National Passport Center cites the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which states a marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and a spouse can refer only to a person of the opposite sex.
Donald Henneberger said he had no trouble with the Social Security Administration, another federal agency, when he requested a card in his new name.
- From the wire services
