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Judge to decide Monday whether transgender N.H. teen can play on her school’s soccer team – The Boston Globe

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Judge to decide Monday whether transgender N.H. teen can play on her school’s soccer team – The Boston Globe


Christopher G. Bond, general counsel for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, said Sunday that the attorney general’s office is tasked with defending duly enacted state laws in court, so the office won’t agree to a temporary restraining order that would result in the suspension of provisions of the law at issue in this case.

The parties had until Monday morning to file a joint stipulation to formalize their potential agreement. But the court on Sunday scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. to address a pending emergency motion, which signaled that no deal had been reached.

The plaintiffs’ emergency motion asks the judge to temporarily block New Hampshire education officials from enforcing the law and to allow Tirrell to keep attending practice and games with her team.

Chief Judge Landya B. McCafferty is presiding over this case in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. She was nominated by former president Barack Obama and is the first woman to serve as a federal district court judge in New Hampshire.

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The enforcement action that triggered this lawsuit came Thursday, when the superintendent of Tirrell’s school district notified Tirrell’s parents that the teen would no longer be welcome at soccer practice beginning Monday, since the new law barring her from the team would take effect over the weekend.

With backing from three law firms that advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, Tirrell and Turmelle, along with their respective parents, filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge enforcement of the new law.

Their attorneys argue in court filings that Tirrell, a rising sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, and Turmelle, a rising ninth-grader at Pembroke Academy, will be denied “a critical aspect of their education” unless the court provides immediate relief.

“They are young adolescents at a critical stage of their personal development,” the attorneys wrote. “They will never get their early high school years back and, as such, a preliminary injunction is necessary to avoid the denial of a critical and unique educational program that cannot be repeated or replaced, let alone adequately compensated by money damages.”

“In their short high school careers, a single day that they miss out on essential educational opportunities will cause them great harm,” they added.

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Iris Turmelle, 14, at her home in Pembroke, N.H.Erin Clark/Globe Staff

Proponents of the legislation — which Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed last month — said it would protect safety and fairness for girls’ sports.

“It may not be universal, but biological males have a strength and speed advantage over biological females,” said New Hampshire Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, during legislative debate in May.

The lawsuit contends, however, that being transgender “is not an accurate proxy for athletic performance or ability.” Tirrell and Turmell are taking puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy, so they won’t experience the muscular development and other physical changes that is typical for testosterone-driven male puberty, their lawsuit says.

Their attorneys argue they don’t have any physiological or biological advantage in girls’ sports and are being excluded based on their status as members of “a politically unpopular class.”

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Under the new restrictions, public schools that serve students in fifth through 12th grades, and private schools whose students compete against public schools, must designate each of their interscholastic sports and club athletics teams as being for either males, females, or both.

A student’s sex is determined based on their unamended birth certificate. If a birth certificate “does not appear to be” original or does not specify sex at birth, then the student “must provide other evidence indicating the student’s sex at the time of birth” and cover any costs associated with doing so.

Private parties can sue schools for failing to enforce the new law’s restrictions.

The issue of how to treat transgender athletes has been a contentious topic in recent years. In late July, the Associated Press reported, a Florida school employee who allowed her transgender daughter to play on the high school’s girls volleyball team was suspended for 10 days. The employee is part of a federal lawsuit to block Florida’s law. A legal challenge to Connecticut’s policy about trans students competing in school sports has been making its way through the court system for several years.


Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.





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New Hampshire

FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums

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FAA investigating after small plane crashes into New Hampshire condominiums


NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A pilot was taken to the hospital with injuries Wednesday after a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in southern New Hampshire, authorities said.

Emergency crews found the aircraft upside down in a snow bank in the parking lot of a wooded condominium complex in Nashua Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the pilot was the only person on board and was the only person injured. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

The Velocity V-Twin plane crashed at the Cannongate Condominiums shortly after departing from the nearby Nashua Airport around 2:10 p.m. local time, according to the FAA.

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Aerial video from NBC10 Boston showed damage to the roof of one of the condos near the crash site.



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New Hampshire

Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire

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Brown University shooting suspect found dead in New Hampshire


NEW YORK (Gray Media) – Thursday night Law enforcement officials confirmed the suspect in last Saturday’s shooting at Brown University was found dead. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the man suspected of killing two Brown students and injuring nine, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Salem, NH. Officials believe the 48-year-old former Brown student was also connected to the killing of an MIT professor earlier this week.

Neves Valente was a student in the early 2000s at Brown and a fellow student of Dr. Nuno Loureiro, the MIT professor. His motive was unknown, but university officials said he likely spent a lot of time in the building where he carried out the attack.

A six-day manhunt led law enforcement to a storage unit where they found Neves Valente, who came to the U.S. from Portugal originally on a student visa, eventually receiving a green card to stay in the country. Rhode Island’s Attorney General Peter Neronha said tips from the public were crucial in finally identifying the suspect.

“When you do crack it, you crack it. And that person led us to the car. Which led us to the name. Which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence,” said Neronha.

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In response to the tragedy and ensuing investigation, President Donald Trump paused the diversity visa lottery program the suspect used to get a green card. Some 50,000 visas per year are granted to students from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.



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New Hampshire

Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe

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Electioneering accusation against high-ranking N.H. Democrat cleared – The Boston Globe


The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has closed a complaint after finding that Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill did not engage in illegal electioneering.

At issue were a series of emails Liot Hill, a Lebanon Democrat, had sent from her official government account to help the partisan Elias Law Group connect with voters impacted by a new state voting law.

Republican lawmakers said that was an inappropriate use of official resources, threatening to impeach Liot Hill over her correspondence. James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, reported his concerns to the Attorney General’s Office in August.

In August, the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats and progressive causes, represented three visually-impaired plaintiffs who sued New Hampshire officials over the constitutionality of a new law that would tighten photo ID requirements for voters seeking an absentee ballot. That case was recently dismissed by a New Hampshire Superior Court judge.

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This week, the Attorney General’s Election Law Unit released its determination that Liot Hill’s emails did not constitute illegal electioneering, in a Dec. 18 letter to MacEachern.

The Election Law Unit said it reviewed five emails from Liot Hill’s official government account that MacEachern had provided.

It found the content of the emails did not meet the state’s definition of electioneering, “because it does not relate in any way to ‘the vote of a voter on any question or office,’ i.e., something to be voted on at an election,” Brendan A. O’Donnell, senior assistant attorney general in the Election Law Unit, said in the letter.

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“Moreover, it is not uncommon for elected officials to use their official capacity to take a position on the constitutionality of an enacted law that is being challenged in court,” O’Donnell said.

However, the letter noted that Liot Hill’s emails did raise the risk that its recipients — including two executive branch officials — could interpret her requests for help as commands.

“All executive branch officials should use care to avoid acting in any way that would create an appearance of impropriety,” said O’Donnell.

But, he continued, his office did not find in this case that there had been a misuse of position or that the emails otherwise violated the executive branch ethics code.

MacEachern said he still has concerns about Liot Hill, when reached for comment on the Election Law Unit’s findings.

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“This report, among others, continues to raise serious questions about Councilor Liot-Hill’s judgement and brazen willingness to push ethical boundaries with her conduct,” he said in an email.

But Liot Hill said the findings “underscore the partisan nature of the ongoing attacks” against her, including the impeachment proceedings Republicans have failed against her.

“I am being impeached not for wrong-doing, but for being a Democrat,” she said in an email.


Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.





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