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November 2007 - Posts
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Can religious comp time — which Congress established as Title IV of the Federal Employees Flexible and Compressed Work Schedules Act of 1978 — survive scrutiny under the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution?
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Through all the outrage and acrimony over the Jena, La., incidents, few have looked carefully at the law that may apply. Both Louisiana and federal law include "hate crimes" statutes, but there is a distinction between "hate crime" and "hate speech." Under Louisiana law, if a person commits certain offenses, it is a separate crime to select the victim because of race. The display of a racially offensive symbol is not such an offense. If it were, the provision would likely run afoul of the First Amendment.
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President Bush has repeated that the administration cannot discuss specific interrogation methods because "it doesn't make any sense to broadcast to the enemy what they ought to prepare for and not prepare for." But the American public should be told which specific techniques do or do not violate laws prohibiting "torture" and "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment.
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Attorney General Michael Mukasey has a lot to accomplish and much damage to undo in the remaining 14 months of the Bush administration. He seems intent on depoliticizing the Department of Justice and restoring its credibility. But Mukasey's responses at his confirmation hearing make us skeptical ... and worried.
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The House passed a bill protecting gay, lesbian and bisexual employees on Nov. 7. Democratic leadership nixed transgender employees from the bill because they lacked the votes to enact the more inclusive law. While compromise is part of the legislative process, this one was misguided. Sacrificing transgendered workers' interests was bad strategy and worse policy.
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Our politicians continue to give each other high fives and deservedly praise firefighters for finally extinguishing the California fires. But the firestorms shattered the lives of thousands and were the foreseeable result of failed public policies at local, state and national levels. Unlike other threats that resonate with the public, concerns about the environment are still too often dismissed. If there is a lesson to take from this tragedy, it is that we still do too little to prevent such calamities.
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Legislation that has been passed by the U.S. Senate, and is currently before a joint House-Senate conference committee, makes important contributions in the battle to contain and eliminate terrorism, and consequently in the struggle to protect the most fundamental of human rights. Apart from affirming the right to sue foreign nations that sponsor terrorism, the bill reduces their ability to claim state immunity. It is important that the Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism bill be enacted.
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The University of California at Irvine Donald Bren School of Law is set to open in only two years. Yet, with roughly 9,000 soon-to-be attorneys awaiting their July California bar results, competition within the job market is noticeably fierce. The consequences of California's surplus of law schools and excess attorneys are monumental. Even some of the more prestigious schools have numerous graduates continuing to search for legal work. Adding an additional law school to the mix is a recipe for disaster.
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A pending case in which qui tam plaintiffs' attorney Richard Scruggs has been charged with criminal contempt by court-appointed private prosecutors illustrates the ambiguous line in qui tam cases between blowing the whistle and potentially doing wrong in the interest of blowing the whistle. As private attorneys general, relators operate in a quasi-law enforcement capacity, wielding an ill-defined authority. Qui tam defendants have mostly borne the brunt of that ambiguity. But ambiguity can cut both ways.
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There are ominous signs that the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have devised a plan to deal with the flood of returning veterans. Unfortunately, that plan is to find ways to deny health care and disability benefits to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Since 2001, the DOD has discharged more than 22,000 veterans exhibiting signs of PTSD based on pre-existing "personality disorders." Such a discharge makes it difficult for the veteran to obtain VA health care and to find employment.
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