News
“A Desperate Need for More Protections”
By LASIS Staff
We recently wrote about the plight of a Fox News reporter who is being threatened with jail time for not revealing her sources. We took the opportunity to lament the absence of a federal shield law for reporters.
Though it’s a shame it took the A.P. scandal to remind our lawmakers about the importance and desirability of such a law, we’re glad a federal bill protecting reporters is being reintroduced by Senator Schumer.
An editorial in today’s New York Times says that it’s unclear at this time whether or not a federal shield law could have protected the A.P. from the administration’s intrusion.
Still, as the editorial points out: “This scandal shows that there is a desperate need for more protections of press freedoms.”
|
Tags AP, journalism, protection of press freedom, revealing sources, Scandal |
Comments |
Date 05/16/2013 |
Occupying the Pledge of Allegiance
Salvador Allende, Chile’s former president and reformer, once said, “To be young and not revolutionary is a contradiction, even biologically.”
I’ve done my fair share of protesting. Back home in Puerto Rico, I’ve participated in marches, sit-ins and the 62-day shut down of my college campus protesting the government’s draconian spending cuts on education. Coming to New York for law school just as the Occupy Wall Street protests began helped calm my homesickness. This is why the story that I read recently about a Maryland high school student’s protest caught my attention.
Ever since she was in the seventh grade, 15 year old Enidris Siurano-Rodríguez of Montgomery County has chosen to sit quietly each morning while her classmates have stood and pledged allegiance to the flag. Earlier this year, one teacher told her that she had to stand. When she refused, she was taken to the principal’s office where she was asked (not too nicely) to explain why she refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, according to an article in a major Puerto Rican newspaper. Ms. Siurano-Rodríguez – Puerto Rican born but living in Maryland since she was three years old – is protesting what she believes to be an “antidemocratic” political situation between the Caribbean island and the United States.
While it’s unclear whether there have been actual disciplinary measures taken against her by school officials, Ms. Siurano-Rodríguez has been told that she might be separated from the class during the Pledge of Allegiance if she refuses to participate. Can a public school do this? Are school officials legally permitted to hinder a student from quietly protesting just because it might be deemed unpatriotic? LASIS investigates.
|
Tags Bethel School District v. Fraser, Enidris Siurano-Rodriguez, Jones Act, Maryland, Montgomery County, Pledge of Allegiance, Puerto Rico, school protest, Tinker v. Des Moines |
Comments |
Date 04/30/2013 |
The Conspiracy Theorist, Now in Boston
By LASIS Staff
Professor James Tracy from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is at it again. In February, LASIS reporter Jennifer Williams told us that Dr. Tracy had taken to his personal blog to question how real the Sandy Hook massacre was. And now, he has set his sights on the Boston bombings writing that the explosions were some kind of drill carried out by the government.
An excerpt from Dr. Tracy’s blog: “In short, the event closely resembles a mass-casualty drill, which for training purposes are designed to be as lifelike as possible. Since it is mediated, however, and primarily experienced from afar through the careful assemblage of words, images, and the official pronouncements and commentary of celebrity journalists, it has the semblance of being for all practical purposes ‘real.’”
Dr. Tracy then offers what he calls “photographic evidence” to support his position and to suggest that actors could be seen getting into position after the explosions.
FAU quickly distanced itself from Dr. Tracy’s statements. “As with all postings on his personal blog, Florida Atlantic University does not agree with Mr. Tracy’s views or opinions,” a statement from FAU spokeswoman Lisa Metcalf said. “The university stands with the rest of the country in our support of the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy.”
We’d love to hear from any of Dr. Tracy’s students. What kind of instructor is this man, who spouts what we think can fairly be described as loony, and despicable, conspiracy theories?
|
Tags Boston Marathon bombings, conspiracy theory, Dr. James Tracy, Florida Atlantic University, Sandy Hook massacre |
Comments |
Date 04/25/2013 |
Finding My Religion
Last year, in article entitled “Losing My Religion,” LASIS reported on four British employees who brought religious discrimination claims against their employers and lost all the way up through their country’s highest court. Their last recourse was the European Court of Human Rights that decided the four cases this January. Was it a happy ending for these lethargic litigants? As it turns out, the only Cinderella story here is that of Nadia Eweida, who wanted to wear a cross on a chain at her airline job.
This British Airways check-in clerk was awarded €32,000 which the government will have to pay (because that’s who she sued). In its judgment, the court stated that while companies have a right to project their desired image through employee uniforms, this right cannot trump an employee’s right to wear religious icons – to a degree. The decision is not entirely clear, and lawyers in Britain are battling over what it means for everyone else going forward. Meanwhile, the court has received twitter praise from Prime Minister David Cameron who tweeted that “ppl shouldn’t suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs.”
|
Tags British Airways, England, European Court of Human Rights, religious discrimination, religious freedom, right to wear religious icons |
Comments |
Date 04/25/2013 |
Can School Tell Tot Where to Sit on Pot?
Born with male organs, Coy Mathis began identifying as a girl at the tender age of 18 months.
Today she is six years old, and while attending Eagleside Elementary School in Colorado, was using the girls’ restroom for over a year; the Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 policy states that students “shall have access to the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity consistently asserted at school.”
Then, in December, the district sent a letter to the Mathis family, stating that, “as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls’ restroom.”
The district wants Coy to use the boys’ restroom, or barring that, a gender-neutral restroom (that it concedes is not near the others).
The Mathis family is suing. LASIS investigates.
|
Tags bathroom, civil rights lawsuit, Colorado, Coy Mathis, Doe v. Clenchy, transgender child, transgender student rights |
Comments |
Date 04/18/2013 |