CLE Details

CLE Details

CLE AGENDA Who’s Minding The Children? May 18, 2007 -- Replacements, Ltd 1089 Knox Road McLeansville, NC, 27301-9228

10:00 - 11:00 AM MICHAEL K. CURTIS Transforming Teenagers into Oral Sex Felons
	In the aftermath of Lawrence v. Texas, the NC Court of Appeals has construed the "crimes against nature" statute in a way that upheld a teenager being found guilty of a felony because—and only because—he had oral sex with his girlfriend. Is there, then, an equal protection argument that should be raised since teenagers engaged in oral sex are considered felons when those same teenagers, engaging in vaginal sex, would not be found guilty of a crime? Michael Curtis will share insights he’s derived from his work on an amicus brief in the case In re R.L.C. and a result law review article.
Michael Kent Curtis is the Judge Donald Smith Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at Wake Forest University School of Law. He teaches constitutional law, legal and constitutional history, and free speech. Before teaching at Wake Forest, Professor Curtis practiced law for twenty years in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1985 he won the Frank Porter Graham award for his work defending and advancing civil liberties in North Carolina. He is the co-author of Constitutional Law in Context, a constitutional law casebook that puts constitutional cases in their historical context. He is the author of No State Shall Abridge: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights, a widely cited book on the historical background supporting application of the Bill of Rights to the states. The book came out at a time Attorney General Ed Meese and others were arguing that the incorporation doctrine had no historical support. Professor Akhil Amar of Yale Law School described the book as "one of the most important and most impressive works of constitutional scholarship in the late twentieth century." He is also the author of the widely praised book, Free Speech, "The Peoples Darling Privilege:" Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History and of numerous law review articles. He was the primary author of an amicus brief worked on by him and Professor Shannon Gilreath in the case, In re R.L.C. R.L.C. was a teenager found delinquent for engaging in the "crime against nature" –based on having oral sex with his younger girl friend. He is currently writing a law review article about prosecuting teenagers for the "crime against nature," entitled Transforming Children Into Oral Sex Felons. Professor Gilreath is also a co-author of that article.

11:05 - 12:05 PM TOMMIE FANTINE LAUER, MD, FASAM Depression (A Hypothetical Viewpoint)
	This session will define and clarify the differences between clinical depression and other depressed states such as sadness, grief and unhappiness. It will outline diagnostic criteria, along with the overall spectrum of mood disorders and special features which may be important behaviorally and potentially legally. Confounding factors in diagnosing depression will be examined. Groups at high risk will be identified along with mortality and morbidity data. Treatment will be discussed as well as long term outcomes.
Tommie Fantine Lauer, MD, FASAM was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 26, 1942, to a homemaker mother and retail salesman father, Tommie graduated from Washington High School in 1960, attended several colleges, graduating from Layton School of Art, Milwaukee in 1965. She worked as professional photographer until 1971 when a return to UNC Greensboro earned a BS in Chemistry, graduating in 1973. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa while at UNCG. Tommie graduated from UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine Dec 1977 with MD. She was a Resident in Psychiatry at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, North Carolina Baptist Hospital from January 1978 to December 1980 and Chief Resident in Psychiatry January 1980 to December 1980. She was in private practice in Psychiatry in High Point from February 1982 until retirement in 2001. Medical Director of Behavioral Services and Chemical Dependency Services at High Point Regional Health System. Tommie was recognized in 1987 by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as having expertise in Addiction Medicine and honored as a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 1998. She is currently involved in spiritual growth, volunteer work in addiction and HIV, and promoting policies which are in no way against another human being.

12:10 - 1:10 PM SHARON A. THOMPSON Strategies for Effectively Raising Second Parent Adoption Issues with the Courts
	Sharon will provide handouts that set out the legal arguments for second parent adoption, information about the status of second parent adoptions in other states in the country, and talking points that help the practitioner persuade judges and court clerks of the appropriateness of granting second parent adoptions. These strategies have proven effective for Sharon as she has pioneered these efforts here in the Raleigh-Durham area.
North Carolina Attorney Sharon Thompson's career has been focused almost entirely on public service and enhancing the legal status of those still not treated fairly or equally under our laws. Sharon started her law practice in 1976. Her immediate focus was on the rights of women and children in North Carolina. Among early ground-breaking efforts of her career is the 1981 NC case Jones v. McDowell, which affirmed the constitutional right of a parent to give a child any name of their choosing, and no longer requiring that a child be given the surname of its father. Sharon was co-founder of the N. C. Association of Women Attorneys in 1978, the N. C. Gay and Lesbian Attorneys (NC GALA) in 1994, and the NC GALA Institute for Equal Rights in 2003. She has also served as a lobbyist at the North Carolina General Assembly for the American Civil Liberties Union, North Carolina Coalition for Choice and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the National Organization for Women Sharon was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives for the first of two terms in 1987. During her two terms in the House, she was recognized as the highest rated female legislator, and was considered one of the most effective representatives overall. During her tenure as a legislator, among her many accomplishments was a great gift to the LGBT community and the lawyers who serve it: the re-writing of the joint tenancy statutes in 1991 clarifying that ownership of real estate in "joint tenancy with right of survivorship" was available in North Carolina to everyone, not just to married couples. Sharon's law practice has been "cutting edge" in family law and sexual orientation litigation. Sharon's leadership and hard, groundbreaking work has, in large part, been focused on family law, working to make it possible for gay and lesbian parents to keep their children, have their partners adopt their children, and have the ability to protect each other and their children legally. She has appeared in a number of landmark cases, including Pulliam v. Smith (in which the North Carolina Supreme Court denied custody to a gay father, finding it "immoral" and detrimental to children for their parent to live with an unmarried partner); Starr v. Erez (a successful defense of an adoptive co-parent in a challenge by the biological mother to North Carolina's recognition of the co-parent's out-of-state adoption); and Godley v. Town of Chapel Hill (another successful case in which the town's domestic partner benefits were upheld against a challenge by taxpayers who were funded by conservative, anti-gay organizations). In 2004, Sharon secured the first decree of adoption for the domestic partner of the biological mother in a same-sex family. Since then, more than 100 children of domestic partners have received this protection, and now have the security of two legal moms or dads. In 2007, Sharon received the Frank Porter Graham award from the ACLU of North Carolina for her lifelong effort toward equality for all. In the 36 years that this prestigious award for work in civil rights has been presented, Sharon is the first openly gay or lesbian person to receive it.

1:15 - 1:45 PM NC GALA Annual Meeting