United States

In Hamilton v. Scott, 97 So. 3d 728 (Ala. 2012), the Supreme Court of Alabama considered whether the state’s wrongful-death statute permitted recovery for the death of a pre-viable fetus.

In Harrington v. State, 858 So. 2d 278 (Ala. Crim. App. 2002), the conviction of a woman found guilty of reckless manslaughter for shooting and killing her husband was reviewed by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

The plaintiff was a long-time employee of Tennessee Tech University’s facilities department, where she managed inventory and was required to make purchases of supplies and equipment. After she made a purchase that exceeded her $5,000 purchasing authority, and even though she had recruited multiple bids for the product and chose the best supplier, her employment was terminated. The plaintiff filed suit in the Putnam County Chancery Court for gender discrimination. The Court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant.

Molly Harvill sued her fellow employee, Oscar Rogers, for sexual assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.  Ms. Harvill alleged that Mr. Rogers grabbed and kissed her, shot rubber bands at her breasts, and rubbed against her at work after repeated requests for him to stop.  The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of Mr. Rogers because Ms.

Here, the plaintiff and the defendant were married and had four children. They all lived in Florida until the plaintiff left with their children and moved to New Hampshire. The parties subsequently divorced. Upon her arrival in New Hampshire, the plaintiff applied for a temporary restraining order against the defendant in Massachusetts, because he criminally threatened her and their children and he threatened her at her parents’ house in Massachusetts.

In Henderson v. Thomas, 913 F. Supp. 2d 1267 (M.D. Ala. 2012), the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama struck down the Alabama Department of Corrections’ longstanding policy of segregating prisoners living with HIV.

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.