U.S. Supreme Court

Aimee Stephens took months to compose a letter to her employer in July 2013. It read: 

“With the support of my loving wife, I have decided to become the person that my mind already is. I cannot begin to describe the shame and suffering that I have lived with. At the end of my vacation on August 26, 2013, I will return to work as my true self, Aimee Australia Stephens, in appropriate business attire.” 

These words propelled Stephens into the heart of a legal case soon to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court ─ a potentially landmark case for the future of LGBTQ rights in this country.

Today on Stateside, how two new major US Supreme Court decisions will impact Michigan. Plus, with the anniversary of the Stonewall riots this Friday, we look at the history of the gay rights movement in Michigan.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state of Michigan over its handling of the state's sex offender registry. 

In 2016, the 6th Circuit Court ruled that aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act, SORA, were unconstitutional.

The court’s opinion specifically noted portions of the act which allowed the state to retroactively impose punishments on individuals without due process. 

The state of Michigan appealed the circuit court's ruling, sending Does vs Snyder to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October 2017, the Supreme Court decided not to take up the case, upholding the 6th Circuit Court's unanimous decision. 

It has now been nearly two years since the original ruling and the Legislature has failed to make any reforms to the law.

At the end of June, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Michigan to force the state to finally make changes to its sex offender registry. 

The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from seven countries: North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. Five of these countries are majority-Muslim nations where many Michigan residents have family members.

Now, the Council on American-Islamic Relations - Michigan (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are partnering to look at how the upheld travel ban will impact Muslims living in Michigan. 

The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision Wednesday in the case Janus v. the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31. AFSCME is the largest public sector union in the country.

In a 5-4 decision, the conservative majority held that public sector workers who are represented by unions cannot be required to pay any union dues.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision that could strengthen the fishing rights of Native American tribes across the nation. It could even give tribes in the Great Lakes region a legal framework to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 pipelines.

These first three weeks of Donald Trump's new administration produced a dizzying flood of executive orders, actions, tweets, protests.

Today brought a chance to dig into all of it with U.S. Senator Gary Peters. In a wide-ranging interview, Stateside spoke with the senator about the current climate in Washington, Russian sanctions, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Democratic resistance to the Trump administration's policies, and Peters' support of a missile defense base in Battle Creek. 

Many would consider arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to be the pinnacle of a lawyer’s career. For lawyers facing that opportunity, a new study offers advice.

In a nutshell: don’t get flashy and don’t try to tug on “judicial heartstrings” when writing briefs for the big case.

 You might remember the story in the news recently that told of the release of a young man who had been sentenced to life without parole.

Davontae Sanford was convicted and sentenced at age 14 for four murders. The courts recently found he was wrongfully convicted.

In 2012 the Supreme Court banned the use of mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles. 

But that doesn't mean it's completely banned.

Yesterday's landmark ruling by the United States Supreme Court applied specifically to abortion clinics in Texas, but it could have far-reaching implications for Michigan, too.

The court's decision came in a 5-3 vote, with the majority opinion written by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

There are some important issues that seem to be mired in Republican resistance on Capitol Hill, federal aid for Flint, and hearings on a new Justice for the United States Supreme Court among them.

Senator Gary Peters, D-Mich., joined Cynthia Canty on today's Stateside to talk about the latest developments and what it might take to get these efforts running through the Senate.

Every 10 years, Michigan legislators re-draw our congressional and legislative districts. Once the census numbers are released, the political party in power at the time controls the process, and that's when things can get ugly.

A U.S. Supreme Court out of Texas could change the way redistricting is handled in Michigan and every other state.

Eric Lupher, the president of the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, joined Stateside to explain how the case of Evenwel v. Abbott could have a significant impact on future elections.

When I learned Saturday night that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died, I talked to a number of legal experts who weren’t necessarily in tune with his thinking.

Robert Sedler, a distinguished professor of constitutional law at Wayne State University, spoke of his brilliance.

Thanks to an opinion handed down Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, some 350 Michigan prison inmates woke up today with a new view on life.

In a six-to-three decision, the High Court ruled that all prisoners who have been sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed as minors should be given a chance to seek parole.

Deborah LaBelle is an Ann Arbor-based attorney and director of the Juvenile Life Without Parole Initiative with the ACLU.