"Marriage is an institution between a man and a woman", that is the definition of a marriage that opponents to the same-sex marriage are willing to defend until the end. Recently a California Court of Appeals declared Proposition Eight, banning same-sex marriage, to be unconstitutional; last Thursday the Maryland Senate voted to legalize same sex marriage making part of the list of states that already issue marriage licence to same sex couples. It seems that there has been a progressive change in mentality and people are more receptive to changes in society. Unfortunately for some and fortunately for others the definition of marriage that we have known for centuries has to be restated so it does not discriminate on the basis of gender.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/23/us/maryland-same-sex-marriage/index.html?hpt=ju_c2

Search at a School Unconstitutional ???

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures. It is very clear that this Amendment protects citizens from potentially being harassed and abused by law enforcement and investigative agencies, however it is not clear if it also protects us for unreasonable search a seizures carry on by regular citizens. This is a case that will be heard in the Supreme Court in North Carolina, after a student filed a lawsuit against her school for inducing her to participate in a bra search based on a tip that pills were being bought to class.  The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled last year that the searches were unconstitutional as well as demeaning and highly intrusive. Schools need to find other ways to conduct searches on students, in my opinion the school took it too far. However the issue is whether the search was unconstitutional. It will be very interesting to know how the courts address this issue.

An American citizen, a father, and a husband was killed in Ciudad Juarez Mexico in front of his two year old son and his wife, when in an attempt to keep his family together moved to ciudad Juarez to ask the U.S embassy to give his wife permission to return to the U.S. They had been married for two years when they decided to begin the naturalization process. His wife was brought into the United States ilegally by his parents when she was a child. Ciudad Juarez is one of the most dangerous cities in the world; 3000 people were murdered in 2010. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prevent immigrants from returning to the United States for several years if they have entered into its territory unlawfully. This law applies whether the USCIS knows that you were in the country illegally or not. The law has to be amended in my opinion, so tragedies like this may be prevented.