North America

Mohammad Shafia, his second wife, and his son were convicted of the June 2009 murders of his three teenaged daughters and his first wife. Their bodies were found submerged inside a car in a canal near Kingston, Ontario. The Shafia family was originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, fled to Dubai before moving to Australia, and then finally moving to Montreal, Canada in 2007. The three defendants were found guilty of four counts of first degree murder and each sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility in 25 years.

In the case Hernandez v. Robles, 7 N.Y.3d 338 (2006), 44 same-sex couples challenged New York State’s Domestic Relations Law after being denied marriage licenses. Lower courts upheld the statute, and the New York Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the legislature could restrict civil marriage to opposite-sex couples. The Court concluded that the statute did not violate state or federal equal protection under the standards applied.

In Hicks v. State of Alabama, 153 So. 3d 53 (Ala. 2014), the Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed the conviction of a woman charged under the state’s chemical endangerment of a child statute after her newborn tested positive for cocaine. The defendant contended that the legislature had not intended the statute to apply to unborn children and further argued that, if interpreted to include fetuses, the law constituted poor public policy and was unconstitutionally vague.

In Hill v. Cundiff, 797 F.3d 948 (11th Cir. 2015), a14 year old eighth grader (Doe), was raped at school by 15 year old eighth grader (CJC), who had a prior history of sexual harassment at the school. The school’s policy on sexual harassment was to accept only three types of evidence as demonstrative of sexual harassment: catching the harasser in the act, physical evidence of the harassment, or an admission of guilt by the harasser.

The plaintiff-respondent worked as a sales representative for Hoffman-La Roche Inc, the defendant-petitioner. The respondent alleged that her supervisor told sexually inappropriate jokes and asked inappropriate questions on multiple occasions. She submitted complaints to Human Resources, which began an investigation. During the respondent’s performance review, her supervisor yelled at her and repeatedly criticized her performance, giving her a below average rating. Shortly afterwards, the petitioner fired both the respondent’s supervisor and the respondent.

A group of husbands filed suit against the United States and other U.S. officials, challenging the validity of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In particular, they were challenging the portion that permitted aliens who had been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by their spouses to self-petition for legal permanent resident status. The plaintiffs claimed this created an incentive for their wives and ex-wives to file false police complaints and false applications for temporary restraining orders against them.

Two decisions, Hughes I (S.D. 1999) and Hughes II (S.D. 2001), arise from the termination of an elementary school guidance counselor after a third-grade student alleged sexual abuse by her father. The guidance counselor, doubting the child’s credibility, spoke directly with the child’s parents instead of reporting the allegations to school authorities or child protective services. The guidance counselor later admitted this during an investigation in which the father was charged with abusing another child.