Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 17:39:52 -0400 From: Denny LEE / ACLU The ACLU National Office has moved! Our new address is 125 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004. The general number is 212/549-2500. Here's a news release from Friday. -- Denny Lee ============================================= AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION http://www.aclu.o rg ============================================= News from the ACLU... ============================================= Firing of Lesbian Lawyer Upheld by Federal Appeals Court FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, May 30, 1997 ATLANTA -- A federal appeals court today ruled 8-to-4 that the Georgia Attorney General did not violate the Constitution when he fired a lesbian attorney after learning that she and her partner participated in a religious commitment ceremony. The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case, criticized the ruling by the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying it ignores core constitutional values of non- discrimination and personal freedom. The ACLU will decide over the next several weeks whether the petition the U.S. Supreme Court for review. The plaintiff in the case, Robin Shahar, sued Attorney General Michael Bowers when he rescinded a job offer after discovering that Shahar was planning to undergo a Jewish marriage with her lesbian partner. The ACLU's lawsuit claimed that the firing violated Shahar's First Amendment right of intimate association, which guarantees a person's right to maintain personal relationships free of government intrusion. "A person's job should not hinge on whether the boss approves of his or her personal relationship," said Matt Coles, director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "Lesbians and gay men ought to have the right to a job and a relationship without having to choose between the two, just like everybody else." The decision today overturns a ruling by a three-judge panel of the same court, which ruled in December 1995 that Shahar's relationship is safeguarded by the "fundamental right of intimate association" and entitled to the highest level of judicial protection. But the ruling, which was embraced by the ACLU as signaling a new measure of respect for lesbian and gay couples, was set aside and reexamined by all 11-judges of the appellate circuit. Shahar was a law clerk in the attorney's general office in 1990. When she graduated sixth in her class at Emory Law School, Bowers offered her a full-time job as an entry-level staff attorney for the Georgia Department of Law. In withdrawing the offer in July 1991, Bowers wrote, "This action has become necessary in light of information which has only recently come to my attention relating to a purported marriage between you and another woman. As chief legal officer of this state, inaction on my part would constitute tacit approval of this purported marriage and jeopardize the proper functioning of this office." ============================================= National Office 125 Broad Street NYC 1004 (212) 549-2666