LGBT Rights.  Kramer Levin has assumed an increasingly prominent role in pro bono work in the area of LGBT rights.

Kramer Levin helped achieve a potentially historic victory for civil rights in New York State early in 2005 when Justice Doris Ling-Cohan of New York County Supreme Court ruled in Hernandez v. Robles that the right to participate in civil marriage cannot constitutionally be denied to same-sex couples.  Although the decision was reversed in the Appellate Division in December 2005, the case is now pending in the New York Court of Appeals  The trial court found that the five plaintiff couples, who represent a broad ethnic and economic cross-section of New York families, were unnecessarily harmed by being excluded from this fundamental civil institution and that barring them from marrying violated their rights to liberty and equal protection under the New York State Constitution.  The court recognized a strong parallel to the irrational restrictions on interracial marriage that survived into the 1960’s and concluded: “Similar to opposite sex couples, same-sex couples are entitled to the same fundamental right to follow their hearts and publicly commit to a lifetime partnership with the person of their choosing.  The recognition that this fundamental right applies equally to same-sex couples cannot legitimately be said to harm anyone.”

The case was brought by Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to advancing the rights of lesbians and gay men, with Kramer Levin as co-counsel.  The Kramer Levin team is led by Jeff Trachtman and Norm Simon, who assisted Lambda Legal on several earlier landmark cases, including Lawrence v. Texas.  The core litigation team has also included Aaron Frankel, Michael Sternhell, and Tricia Seith who worked with the plaintiffs and their relatives to prepare affidavits that demonstrated the impact of the marriage ban on real families, and Darren Cohen and Josh Kelner, who have made invaluable contributions during the appeal process.  Other important contributions to the case have been made by Owen Glist, Kerri Ann Law, Jen Rochon, Paul Schoeman, Steve Sparling, Joel Taylor, Eric Tirschwell, and Jen Brevaire, as well as then-summer associates Michael Brooks, Adam Busch, Michael Feuer, Aaron Fleisher, Emily Groendyke, Matthew Keller, Alison Monahan, Arielle Warshall, Julie Weiswasser, and Jean Paul Ciardullo.

In a matter bridging gay rights and September 11th issues, Jeff Trachtman, Kerri Ann Law, and Eric Shimanoff helped vindicate the right of the same-sex domestic partner of a World Trade Center victim to compensation from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.  Because the victim died intestate and her family refused to recognize our client’s partnership with the victim, our client was unable to act as the victim’s personal representative.  Eric and Kerri Ann persuaded the Special Master to increase the award to recognize the domestic partnership.  Unfortunately, once the Fund issued the full award to the victim’s brother in his role as personal representative, the brother declined to distribute any portion of the award to our client, as the Special Master had intended, or even to negotiate further, forcing the matter into litigation.  Jeff and Eric obtained rulings sustaining the complaint and requiring the brother to maintain the fund in escrow pending resolution of the dispute.  That decision was affirmed by the Appellate Division, Second Department, early in 2006, and the matter settled shortly thereafter on favorable terms.  Then-summer associates Emily Groendyke and Jessica Tuchinsky assisted on the matter.

In another case seeking to establish respect for same-sex relationships, Jeff Trachtman, Norm Simon, and Darren Cohen represent a retired Nassau County schoolteacher who married his partner of 43 years in Canada but was denied the spousal health insurance benefits to which he was entitled.  The school district and the Department of Civil Service, which administers health plans for municipal employees throughout the state, took this position even though the state Attorney General, Controller, and other public officials and private entities throughout the state have recognized New York’s long-standing legal rule that a marriage valid in the jurisdiction where it was celebrated should be respected in New York even if such a marriage could not be entered into within the State.  Cross motions for summary judgment were briefed and argued early in 2006.

Voting Rights.  The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is a 32-year old New York-based organization that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans through litigation, legal advocacy, and community education.  Jacqueline Edwards, Marissa Leung, Jay Park, Abraham Safdie, and Michael Yap served in AALDEF’s annual voting rights protection project as polling monitors.  Each year, volunteers in this project observe voting procedures at various polling sites and ensure that any irregularities, complaints, or violations of law are properly reported to government regulators.  In 2005, approximately 250 volunteers monitored 80 polling sites in the New York area and Massachusetts.  Jay and Michael, along with other poll monitors, later testified before the New York City Voter Assistance Commission to report their findings and advocate for improvements in future elections.  Based on the findings of AALDEF poll monitors, AALDEF, in February 2006, brought a lawsuit on behalf of four organizations and five limited English proficient Asian American voters against the New York City Board of Elections for violations of the Language Assistance Provisions (Sections 203 and 208) of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Kramer Levin teamed up with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Advancement Project to lay the groundwork for a First Amendment challenge to a burdensome Florida law that threatens to significantly impair, if not shut down, third-party voter registration in that state.  During the 2004 presidential election, it is estimated that third-party groups like the League of Women Voters registered more than 500,000 new voters in Florida.  The 2005 law imposes an initial fine of $250 per form on certain individuals who register voters with third-party groups when the forms are not delivered to local officials within a very tight 10-day deadline.  The law, which exempts political parties, is a strict liability statute that levies heavier fines of $500 and then $5,000 for each form that is not submitted, respectively, by the voter registration deadline or at any other time.  In the past, forms could be submitted anytime before the voter registration deadline.  The law threatens to significantly chill free speech and voter participation in Florida.  The burdens imposed by the law are particularly inappropriate in view of the absence of any serious past problems in Florida with the submission of late voter registration forms.  Kramer Levin and its co-counsel filed a lawsuit in May 2006 in federal district court in Florida on behalf of the League of Women Voters and other organizations seeking an injunction barring enforcement of the law.  Kramer Levin attorneys Eric Tirschwell, Craig Siegel, Erin Walter, Parthena Psyllos, David Landman and Emily Groendyke, and paralegal Sandra Wong, have worked on the case.

Prisoner Rights.  Craig Siegel, Jay Park, and Joe Schwartz represent Lawrence Johnson in his civil rights lawsuit against two corrections officers employed at the Metropolitan Detention Center (“MDC”) in Brooklyn, a facility that has recently come under sharp criticism from the federal government for its treatment of certain pretrial detainees.  The suit alleges that while Mr. Johnson was a detainee, another detainee plunged a blade into his throat and slashed his face at the instigation of a corrections officer.  The potentially lethal attack left Mr. Johnson permanently scarred.  The officer was apparently upset that Mr. Johnson — a former barbershop owner — had shown an MDC barber how to do a “Fadeout” haircut without the officer’s permission.  In addition, the suit alleges that soon after Mr. Johnson filed a pro se civil rights lawsuit arising out of the first attack, another corrections officer intentionally left him rear-cuffed in a cell with another uncuffed detainee for approximately seven hours.  The officer repeatedly ignored Mr. Johnson’s pleas for help.  When a supervisor finally responded, Mr. Johnson’s left hand was terribly swollen and numb and he was suffering severe pain in his left shoulder and upper back.  The lawsuit seeks damages for Mr. Johnson’s physical and emotional injuries and for the injuries to his constitutional rights, including his rights under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause and the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause. The case is currently pending before the United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York, after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier dismissal of the lawsuit on procedural grounds.

Reproductive Freedom.  Gregory Horowitz, Ilyssa Sena, Patricia Seith, and Josh Kelner prepared an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas that helped convince a state court of appeals in Texas to reverse the convictions of two pregnant for delivering a controlled substance to their fetuses under a statute barring delivery of drugs to children.  Our brief argued, under both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, that the novel prosecutions violated the women’s right to privacy by opening the door to widespread interference with virtually every aspect of a pregnant woman’s life on the pretext of protecting the fetus; that subjecting pregnant women to potential criminal prosecution in such circumstances would discourage them from seeking medical treatment and prenatal care, cause them to be less candid with their physicians, or prompt them to terminate their pregnancies rather than face prosecution; and that the prosecutor’s reading of the statute violated due process because the law was not sufficiently clear to provide citizens with fair notice that this conduct was criminally prohibited.  In a March 2006 decision, a state court of appeals in Texas unanimously reversed the women’s convictions.

Establishment Clause.  In June 2005, Kramer Levin filed an amicus curiae brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in a potentially landmark First Amendment Establishment Clause case involving the placement of an evolution disclaimer sticker in high school science textbooks in the public schools of Cobb County, Georgia.  The sticker states, among other things, that “evolution is a theory, not a fact” and singles out evolution for special scrutiny.  The Kramer Levin brief argued that “the district court correctly held that, regardless of the School Board’s purpose in adopting the sticker, the sticker has the impermissible effect of sending a message that the School Board has taken the side of religious objectors in the debate over the teaching of evolution.”  Kramer Levin’s brief was authored by Eric Tirschwell and Marjorie Sheldon, with the assistance of Joshua Kelner and Nugzari Jakobishvili.  The brief was filed on behalf of the American Jewish Congress, an organization founded in 1918 to protect the civil, political, economic, and religious rights of American Jews that has participated in many cases involving the constitutional principles guaranteeing the separation of church and state.

Education Rights.  Gregory Horowitz, assisted by Parthena Psyllos, Shoshana Menu, and Julie Weiswasser, are representing Saint Basil Academy, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese home for children in need, in an effort to obtain free and appropriate public education for the children in its care.  St. Basil, which operates on a magnificent 250 acre Hudson River estate in Garrison, New York (formerly owned by Jacob Ruppert, the original owner of the New York Yankees), has a distinguished history dating back to its founding in 1944 and includes among its alumni Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine.  In 1998, St. Basil closed down its on-site school and sought to enroll its children in the public schools of Garrison and neighboring communities.  For reasons that are at least economic and perhaps less honorable, the Town has put up vigorous resistance.  We are currently doing battle in three different venues, but hope to be able to negotiate a consensual resolution that will benefit all concerned.

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