Tag Archives: Lawyer

Over 100 University of Michigan Law School Grads Walk Out In Protest On Anti-Gay Ohio State Senator Rob Portman

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This past Saturday over 100 University of Michigan Law School graduates walked out of thier graduation  commencement when Ohio State GOP Senator Rob Portman took to the podium to give the classes commencement speech.

Via Pride Source:

Outside the Hill Auditorium guests attending Senior Day were handed a pamphlet explaining the coming protest. About 60 percent of the graduates wore rainbow buttons or flair on their gowns. Family and friends of the graduates wore the rainbow ribbon to show solidarity with grads who would be affected by Portman’s votes.

The pamphlet contained a letter from more than 200 Michigan Law alumni to Dean Caminker.

“Senator Portman, in public life, has actively worked to deny some members of the graduating class their civil rights … Our objection is not a political one … rather we are concerned about the message Michigan Law is sending by giving an anti-gay rights speaker the honor of marking what should be a joyful occasion,” the letter read.

Congratulations and well done to the grads who walked out in protest on Portman.

THIS is exactly what needs to happen more often.  Protest and statements made against those who oppose LGBT equality in the political. public and private sector.

We must not allow the excuses and complacency that give harmful and hateful anti-gay individuals like Portman a pass because his homophobia is explained away as “his opinion”.

Would Portman have been given a pass and would he have been invited to give the University of Michigan’s commencement speech if he were an anti-semite?  A racist?  A misogynist? 

NO.

We need to start visibly showing our opinion and distaste of these hateful individuals and make personal stands and let it be known that we will no longer listen to such bullshit or to any individual who stands for hate in any way shape or form.

Olsen and Boies File Brief On Behalf Of Plaintiffs In Prop 8 Case With Ninth Circuit Court Demanding That The Prop 8 Decision Stand

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Attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies filed a brief late yesterday to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals demanding that the ruling striking down Proposition 8 must stand.

“Fourteen times the Supreme Court has stated that marriage is a fundamental right of all individuals. This case tests the proposition whether the gay and lesbian Americans among us should be counted as ‘persons’ under the 14th Amendment, or whether they constitute a permanent underclass ineligible for protection under that cornerstone of our Constitution,” attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies wrote in their filing. 

“Proponents and their amici now attempt to fill the evidentiary void they left in the district court with an avalanche of non-record citations, distortions and misstatements regarding the proceedings below, and baseless attacks on the good faith of the district court. The tactic is unfortunate, unbecoming and unavailing. The governmental interests Proponents assert have been affirmatively disavowed by California, or have no basis in reality, or both. The fact is, as the testimony of 19 witnesses and 900 trial exhibits introduced into evidence amply demonstrates, there is no good reason—indeed, not even a rational basis—for California to exclude gay men and lesbians from the institution of civil marriage, the most important relation in life.”

You really have to admire Ted Olsen and David Boies. 

Read the full introduction here or read the embedded legal documents after the jump

Humpy Laywer Ben Pavone Refuses To Pay BoFA Credit Card And Is Prepared To Sue!

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Is he Gay?  Who cares! 

Drop dead gorgeous San Diego lawyer Ben Pavone is pissed off!

Bank of America has raised his interest rate to 27.99 percent, and has lowerd his credit limit, which has gone down to just above his balance.  Pavone refuses to pay now and is threatening to sue BoFA for breeching the “good faith” clause in the credit contract.

Pavone said he got “squeezed for cash” and asked Bank of America to raise his credit limit in October. The bank responded with a two-page letter. The first page declined the request; the second told him his limit would be reduced from $32,100 to $30,400. Bank of America cited “economic trends” in both decisions.

“I consider your action an anticipatory repudiation of the contract and am treating you as in breach,” he wrote in a Dec. 31 letter to the bank. “I am therefore not paying the money that is currently due on January 3, 2010 out of protest.”  The letter concludes by asking the bank to reduce his rate to 10.99 percent, after noting that it would probably cost less to reduce the rate than to have to fight the suit.

“For the record, I have a perfect payment history and I have a nearly perfect payment record on my credit,” Pavone’s letter continued. “I have no doubt that you will mark my credit in light of this default, but if you do, I will sue you. I am eager to argue to a court that your interest rates are unfair within the meaning of various state and federal statutes, and anxious to point out that you ‘had’ to cut my credit limit from $32,000 down to $30,000 at the same time you were borrowing billions from the federal government and paid your executive bonuses in full.”

As for the legal theory of Pavone’s possible lawsuit, consumer law experts say he just might have a case. Pavone said a possible suit would allege unconscionability. When jacking up interest rates, credit card lenders typically provide notice and an opportunity for cardholders to refuse the higher rate and settle their accounts at the current rate — nothing unconscionable about that. But maybe Bank of America breached good faith by reducing the limit to a level that would likely incur fees and damage Pavone’s credit report.

Lawsuits against big banks are not totally unwinnable. In November a federal judge refused to dismiss a class-action claim against Chase filed by customers who said the bank acted in bad faith when it raised minimum monthly payments from 2 percent to 5 percent on fixed-rate cardholders.

Mr. Hottie Laywer has the right idea.  FIGHT and if you don’t want to fight then cancel your cards, take your money out of the bank and open an account and get a card through a small community bank.

BoFa, 5/3, Chase, all of them.  They need to be taught a lesson.