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Failed bar exam blamed on query on gay marriage

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 7, 2007

BOSTON

A man said he failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he refused to answer a question about gay marriage, and claims in a federal lawsuit the test violated his rights and targeted his religious beliefs. The suit also challenges the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, which was legalized in Massachusetts in 2003. Stephen Dunne, who is representing himself in the case and seeks $9.75-million, said the bar exam was not the place for a "morally repugnant and patently offensive" question addressing the rights of two married lesbians, their children and their property. He said he refused to answer the question because he believed it legitimized same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting, which is contrary to his moral beliefs. Dunne, 30, was denied a license to practice law in May after scoring 268.866 on the exam, just shy of the 270 passing grade. Officials with the state bar and the court declined to comment.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

New Jersey enacts global warming law

New Jersey became the third state in the nation to enact a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction law Friday, requiring the Garden State to significantly cut emissions of global-warming gases. Al Gore, the former vice president turned environmental activist, was on hand as Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed the "Global Warming Response Act" into law. California and Hawaii have adopted similar laws, and eight other states are considering them. The legislation requires the state to reduce global warming gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050. New Jersey is the first state to set global warming targets so far into the future, environmentalists said, and the first to require that energy imports adhere to New Jersey's standards.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO.

New regulations for abortion clinics

Missouri abortion providers will face new regulations for their clinics and new restrictions on teaching sex education classes under a bill Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law Friday. The measure places more abortion clinics under government oversight by classifying them as ambulatory surgical centers. The law also bars people affiliated with abortion providers from teaching or supplying materials for public school sex education courses, and it allows schools to offer abstinence-only programs. "Essentially, what Gov. Blunt and the Legislature are doing is saying that teens need to be protected from information, not from sexually transmitted infections or unintended pregnancies, " said Peter Brownlie, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

Elsewhere

Akron, Ohio: A woman accused of offering her younger lover a share of her husband's multimillion-dollar estate if he would kill the 69-year-old was convicted Friday of murder-for-hire and other charges. Donna Moonda, 48, could now face the death penalty.

Richmond, Va.: Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has issued an "absolute pardon" to a man who spent nearly a decade on death row and came within nine days of being executed for a murder he did not commit. The pardon proclaims Earl Washington Jr.'s innocence in the June 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams, a 19-year-old mother of three.

[Last modified July 7, 2007, 00:25:01]