Word: legalism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Last week, concern burst into outrage. When the Justice Department filed a legal brief arguing against gay marriage, the head of Human Rights Campaign - the largest gay-rights group in the U.S. - accused the Administration of failing to recognize the "humanity" of homosexuals. Barney Frank called the White House to protest, and several other gay Democrats announced plans to boycott an upcoming fundraiser, forcing the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, Andrew Tobias, who is also gay, to write donors saying that he understood "all the hurt and anger...
...Justice Department briefs are due on June 29 for another legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act - this one filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders - and several legal groups will be watching to see if Justice rehashes the offensive arguments in its previous brief. Whatever happens, the gay and lesbian community has no intent to let off the pressure on Obama. "It's like any other intimate relationship," says Rabin, the lobbyist who works with Human Rights Campaign and other gay-rights groups. "It's close and warm and complicated, and you have really good days and really...
...When Deng Xiaoping led China on the path to reform 30 years ago, one of the key declarations he made was that the country would be ruled by law. Since then, China has made dramatic headway in developing a legal system, but the application of law has been choppy. In recent years a small group of independent lawyers across the nation has been attempting to force the state to uphold human rights. The lawyers have been subject to arrest, violence and even, in the case of one prominent advocate, disappearance. But this month's apparent disbarment of the country...
...political control like how they were expected to perform from the 1950s to the 1970s," says Albert Ho, a Hong Kong solicitor and chairman of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. "With the opening and liberalization of China, it needs to build a system of law and a sound legal system. The government and the governing party shall abide by the law. But they are very, very concerned that the law may cause an obstacle to the control of the people...
...Human-rights experts note that Gao, who was once named one of China's top 10 lawyers in 2001, also lost his legal license in 2005. They worry that the latest group of lawyers could be similarly ostracized and mistreated upon being disbarred. In that case, the authorities might lose as well. For all their work on cases that the Communist Party would rather have disappear, the lawyers are working within the system, rather than outside it. "These lawyers are not advocating a fundamental change to the political system. They are not asking the Communist Party to step down...