Equal Protection and Transgender Rights

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7369441@N08/8594644828

Throughout the month of May, we have highlighted civil rights law resources from the Law Library's print collection. Titles currently on display include Transgender Persons and the Law, Section 1983 Litigation in a Nutshell, Americans With Disabilities Practice and Compliance Manual, and Sexual Orientation and the Law. We have also been celebrating the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This cornerstone of landmark civil rights legislation has been a source of inspiration for equal justice advocates for nearly 150 years.

The 14th Amendment has been invoked in a great number of historic cases including the trial of Susan B. Anthony (1873), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Loving v. Virginia (1967), Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and as recently as yesterday, Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District, a case in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals with important implications for transgender rights.

In Whitaker, a three-judge panel cited the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, arguing that anti-discrimination laws apply to transgender students. They upheld the lower court's injunction, stating that sex discrimination based on gender identity is unconstitutional. This decision, the first ruling of its kind by a court at the federal level, will protect the individual student at the heart of the case and could extend to transgender students as a class. By invoking federal civil rights laws, this ruling has the potential to ensure equality for all transgender people and prohibit discrimination in education, housing, and employment. 

Legal Reference Services for the Public

The reference staff at the Harris County Law Library is always happy to help you find the resources you need to answer your legal research questions. Whether you are a legal professional or a self-represented litigant, we strive to provide the most appropriate and thorough information to meet your legal needs.

Our print materials, especially the titles shelved at the Reference Desk, are heavily used on a daily basis. O'Connor's annotated codes and the O'Connor's legal form books are requested most frequently, along with the State Bar of Texas Practice Manuals for Family, Probate, Real Estate, and Guardianship matters.

The do-it-yourself legal website, TexasLawHelp.org, is another indispensable tool. It provides library patrons with the information they need to file for divorce, arrange for child custody, request name changes, apply for occupational licenses, and expunge criminal records. It also provides a wealth of information about common legal matters including court structure, basic civil procedure, and what to expect when going before a judge in a court of law. 

The Harris County Law Library is a self-service, public law library committed to providing open and equal access to justice for all. We aim to offer the best service possible for every individual who walks through our doors. We partner with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers to offer you the legal advice that we as librarians are not permitted to provide. As a constant reminder to ourselves and to those we serve, we post signs clearly displayed throughout the library, informing patrons of our dedication to providing legal information but not legal advice. We can point you to resources that we know to be reliable, accurate, and authoritative, but we cannot interpret legal forms, statutes, or cases. We must remain neutral and impartial, providing legal definitions and procedural explanations that facilitate access to and understanding of the legal system without providing advice, research, opinions, legal counsel, or subjective evaluations.

As providers of legal reference -- not legal research -- we must remain objective and unbiased. Law librarians are passionate about facilitating access to legal information and empowering library patrons to educate themselves about the law. Ensuring that all library patrons -- especially pro se litigants -- have the tools they need to successfully navigate the complex legal machinery of our justice system and gain access to the legal process is our goal.

To answer any questions about the kind of service we can provide, please refer to this helpful quick reference guide. We're happy to clarify any of the points covered. We look forward to serving all your legal reference needs.

Recursos en Español - Spanish Language Legal Resources

The Harris County Law Library has created several research guides on a number of popular legal research topics such as family law, labor and employment, real estate law, and civil and criminal litigation. Our newest guide, now available in the Law Library and on the Law Library's website, is the Spanish Language Resources Research Guide.

Provided is a directory of Spanish language materials in the Law Library's print collection as well as links to digital resources available online. Topics covered are immigration, wills and estates, landlord/tenant, family law, consumer law, and criminal law. Community legal resources are also included along with general reference guides on the legal system in Texas.

If you have any questions about accessing these resources or about finding Spanish language legal services in the Greater Houston area, please speak with a member of the Law Library's reference staff. 

Social Media Search Engines

Family, friends, neighbors, employers, and social media platforms are all good sources of actionable intelligence about an individual, but, for good reasons, people are typically not forthcoming with the information you wish to gather, and searching every social media platform is impractical and inefficient. That's where websites like SocialMention.com and Social-Searcher.com may be helpful. 

Social Mention is a real-time social media search and analysis platform that "aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc."

Social Searcher is a free social media search engine. "It allows you to search for content in social networks in real-time and provides deep analytics data. Users can search without logging in for publicly posted information on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Flickr, Dailymotion and Vimeo. Free users can also save their searches and set up email alerts."

Access to Justice – Transfer on Death Deed

Chapter 114 of the Texas Estates Code authorizes an owner of real property to designate a beneficiary to whom that property will pass upon the owner’s death. This process alleviates the expense that the beneficiary would otherwise have had to bear if the property had passed through the probate process. This alternative to probate is called a transfer on death deed. Executed by the property owner during his lifetime, the deed is a non-testamentary instrument that is freely revocable should the property owner change his mind regarding the primary or alternate beneficiaries named in the deed. To be effective, the transfer on death deed must state that the transfer of real property is to occur at the property owner’s death and must be recorded with the county clerk in the county in which the property is located prior to the death of the transferor. Once the deed is in effect, a will may not supersede the validly executed deed. In other words, if a will names a different individual as beneficiary, the property will go to the individual designated in the transfer on death deed, not the one named in the will.

TexasLawHelp.org has a packet on its website with information about and instructions and forms for the transfer on death deeds. There are links to forms and instructions for property owners who want to transfer real property using the transfer on death deed, for property owners who want to revoke a prior transfer on death deed, and for beneficiaries who want to know what needs to be done to acquire title to the property named in the deed.

There are more alternatives to probate that have been proposed. There are two bills before the current legislative session (SB 869 and HB 1753) that, if passed, would enable an owner to transfer his interest in a vehicle to a designated beneficiary, thereby allowing the vehicle to pass outside of probate. The Texas Access to Justice Commission, one of the champions of the need for low-income Texans to have equal access to the civil judicial system, is supporting this legislation.