California
Legal advocates seek public access to court records about abuse at prison
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two advocacy groups on Wednesday asked a judge to unseal court records and preserve public access to hearings in the class action lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons over the sexual abuse of incarcerated women at a now-shuttered California prison.
The bureau announced suddenly on April 15 that it would close FCI Dublin and transfer about 600 women despite attempts to reform the facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate assaults.
The legal nonprofit Public Justice and the ACLU of Northern California jointly filed a motion for increased transparency in the case, which is set for trial next June.
In the weeks since the process began, the federal district court held a series of closed hearings to address the hastily planned closure of the prison near San Francisco. “These hearings took place without prior notice, and in many instances, the docket does not reflect that they even occurred,” the groups said in a statement Wednesday.
In addition, the court has “granted numerous motions to seal records in the case and many of the motions themselves are under seal, leaving the public and the press in the dark,” the statement said.
The groups argued that previously sealed documents should be made public because concerns over security are irrelevant now that FCI Dublin is closed.
The prisons bureau said in a statement Wednesday that it does not comment on matters pending before the court.
“Holding government officials accountable for the horrific conditions at FCI Dublin requires complete transparency,” said Angelica Salceda, director of the Democracy and Civic Engagement program at the ACLU of Northern California. “The public must know the full extent of the systemic sexual misconduct that occurred there, as well as what happened during those final chaotic weeks leading up to the facility’s closure and in the immediate aftermath.”
Prisons officials have reiterated that the closure plan was carefully considered over months.
FCI Dublin inmates sued the prisons bureau last August alleging the agency had failed to root out sexual abuse.
Louisiana
Supreme Court reopens window for lawsuits by adult victims of childhood abuse
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officially reversing a controversial March ruling, Louisiana’s highest court Wednesday gave childhood victims of sexual abuse a renewed opportunity to file damage lawsuits.
The state Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling Wednesday upholds a so-called look-back law that was passed in 2021 and amended in 2022. The law gave victims of past abuse, whose deadlines for filing civil lawsuits had expired, renewed opportunities to file lawsuits. The original legislation set a deadline of June 14 of this year. That deadline was later extended until June 2027.
Wednesday’s move had been expected. The court had ruled 4-3 in March that the law couldn’t stand because it conflicted with due process rights in the state constitution. But the court agreed last month to reconsider the case.
Justices Scott Crichton and Piper Griffin, part of the majority in March, joined justices joined Chief Justice John Weimer and justices Jay McCallum and William Crain to revive the law.
“For many victims of child sexual abuse, the revival provision represents their first and only opportunity to bring suit,” Weimer wrote in the new ruling. “Providing that opportunity to those victims is a legitimate legislative purpose.”
Justices James Genovese and Jefferson Hughes dissented. Genovese wrote that the new ruling “obliterates” decades of precedent and “elevates a legislative act over a constitutional right.”
The ruling comes as the Catholic Church continues to deal with the ramifications of a decades-old sex scandal. The ruling arose from a case filed against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette by plaintiffs who said they were molested by a priest in the 1970s while they ranged in age from 8 to 14, according to the Supreme Court record.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill hailed the court’s reversal, as did advocates for abuse victims.
“We are elated that victims of sexual abuse who have been time barred from justice will have their day in court,” Mike McDonnell, of the advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an emailed statement.
Colorado
Federal court dismisses appeal of lawsuit contesting transgender woman in Wyoming sorority
DENVER (AP) — A federal court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of a lawsuit that challenged a transgender woman’s acceptance into a sorority at the University of Wyoming, ruling it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.
The lawsuit could not be appealed because a lower court judge in Wyoming left open the possibility of refiling it in his court, the three-judge U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver determined.
The case involving Artemis Langford, a transgender woman admitted into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter in Laramie, drew widespread attention as transgender people fight for more acceptance in schools, athletics, workplaces and elsewhere, while others push back.
The sorority argued it had wide leeway to interpret its own bylaws, including defining who is a woman, but six sorority sisters argued in a lawsuit for a narrower interpretation.
Last summer, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne dismissed the case without prejudice in a ruling that suggested the lawsuit could be refiled in his court.
The appellate judges sided with sorority attorneys who argued the case was not ready for the appeals court. The question elicited the most discussion before the judges during oral arguments in May.
An attorney for the sorority sisters, May Mailman, declined to comment on the ruling. An attorney for the sorority, Natalie McLaughlin, did not return messages seeking comment.
The sorority sisters’ lawsuit against Kappa Kappa Gamma and its president, Mary Pat Rooney, claimed Langford made them feel uncomfortable in the sorority house. Langford was dropped from the lawsuit on appeal.
The arguments hearing drew a small demonstration outside a federal courthouse in Denver with women holding signs that read “Save Sisterhood” and “Women have the right to women’s only spaces.”
Legal advocates seek public access to court records about abuse at prison
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two advocacy groups on Wednesday asked a judge to unseal court records and preserve public access to hearings in the class action lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons over the sexual abuse of incarcerated women at a now-shuttered California prison.
The bureau announced suddenly on April 15 that it would close FCI Dublin and transfer about 600 women despite attempts to reform the facility after an Associated Press investigation exposed rampant staff-on-inmate assaults.
The legal nonprofit Public Justice and the ACLU of Northern California jointly filed a motion for increased transparency in the case, which is set for trial next June.
In the weeks since the process began, the federal district court held a series of closed hearings to address the hastily planned closure of the prison near San Francisco. “These hearings took place without prior notice, and in many instances, the docket does not reflect that they even occurred,” the groups said in a statement Wednesday.
In addition, the court has “granted numerous motions to seal records in the case and many of the motions themselves are under seal, leaving the public and the press in the dark,” the statement said.
The groups argued that previously sealed documents should be made public because concerns over security are irrelevant now that FCI Dublin is closed.
The prisons bureau said in a statement Wednesday that it does not comment on matters pending before the court.
“Holding government officials accountable for the horrific conditions at FCI Dublin requires complete transparency,” said Angelica Salceda, director of the Democracy and Civic Engagement program at the ACLU of Northern California. “The public must know the full extent of the systemic sexual misconduct that occurred there, as well as what happened during those final chaotic weeks leading up to the facility’s closure and in the immediate aftermath.”
Prisons officials have reiterated that the closure plan was carefully considered over months.
FCI Dublin inmates sued the prisons bureau last August alleging the agency had failed to root out sexual abuse.
Louisiana
Supreme Court reopens window for lawsuits by adult victims of childhood abuse
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officially reversing a controversial March ruling, Louisiana’s highest court Wednesday gave childhood victims of sexual abuse a renewed opportunity to file damage lawsuits.
The state Supreme Court’s 5-2 ruling Wednesday upholds a so-called look-back law that was passed in 2021 and amended in 2022. The law gave victims of past abuse, whose deadlines for filing civil lawsuits had expired, renewed opportunities to file lawsuits. The original legislation set a deadline of June 14 of this year. That deadline was later extended until June 2027.
Wednesday’s move had been expected. The court had ruled 4-3 in March that the law couldn’t stand because it conflicted with due process rights in the state constitution. But the court agreed last month to reconsider the case.
Justices Scott Crichton and Piper Griffin, part of the majority in March, joined justices joined Chief Justice John Weimer and justices Jay McCallum and William Crain to revive the law.
“For many victims of child sexual abuse, the revival provision represents their first and only opportunity to bring suit,” Weimer wrote in the new ruling. “Providing that opportunity to those victims is a legitimate legislative purpose.”
Justices James Genovese and Jefferson Hughes dissented. Genovese wrote that the new ruling “obliterates” decades of precedent and “elevates a legislative act over a constitutional right.”
The ruling comes as the Catholic Church continues to deal with the ramifications of a decades-old sex scandal. The ruling arose from a case filed against the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette by plaintiffs who said they were molested by a priest in the 1970s while they ranged in age from 8 to 14, according to the Supreme Court record.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill hailed the court’s reversal, as did advocates for abuse victims.
“We are elated that victims of sexual abuse who have been time barred from justice will have their day in court,” Mike McDonnell, of the advocacy group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an emailed statement.
Colorado
Federal court dismisses appeal of lawsuit contesting transgender woman in Wyoming sorority
DENVER (AP) — A federal court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of a lawsuit that challenged a transgender woman’s acceptance into a sorority at the University of Wyoming, ruling it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.
The lawsuit could not be appealed because a lower court judge in Wyoming left open the possibility of refiling it in his court, the three-judge U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver determined.
The case involving Artemis Langford, a transgender woman admitted into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter in Laramie, drew widespread attention as transgender people fight for more acceptance in schools, athletics, workplaces and elsewhere, while others push back.
The sorority argued it had wide leeway to interpret its own bylaws, including defining who is a woman, but six sorority sisters argued in a lawsuit for a narrower interpretation.
Last summer, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne dismissed the case without prejudice in a ruling that suggested the lawsuit could be refiled in his court.
The appellate judges sided with sorority attorneys who argued the case was not ready for the appeals court. The question elicited the most discussion before the judges during oral arguments in May.
An attorney for the sorority sisters, May Mailman, declined to comment on the ruling. An attorney for the sorority, Natalie McLaughlin, did not return messages seeking comment.
The sorority sisters’ lawsuit against Kappa Kappa Gamma and its president, Mary Pat Rooney, claimed Langford made them feel uncomfortable in the sorority house. Langford was dropped from the lawsuit on appeal.
The arguments hearing drew a small demonstration outside a federal courthouse in Denver with women holding signs that read “Save Sisterhood” and “Women have the right to women’s only spaces.”
