Is Open Carry Kosher for Sabbath?

Flying home from Houston, I sat next to a Jewish woman who informed me that her temple recently had a two hour debate on whether to allow “open carry” of guns during services and community gatherings. Shocked, I asked for the main debating points. FOR: KC Jewish Center was shot up last year; it’s the new law in Texas; people are afraid of crime, and especially fearful of mass gun violence. AGAINST: Open carry will scare people aware from services and gatherings; no one can remember violence that occurred in a Houston temple or synagogue; just because it’s legal doesn’t make it a good idea; fear of gun violence is overdone. OUTCOME: No open carry…. But concealed carry is allowed. Just me, but I don’t want to attend a service or gathering with any guns. TEXAS UNITED METHODISTS: “Believing that the open carry of handguns on church property is inconsistent with an atmosphere of prayer and worship, it is the recommendation of the Conference Chancellors that oral and/or written notice be given in accordance with the statute prohibiting the “Open Carry” of handguns in churches of the Conference. We make no recommendation regarding the prohibition of concealed handguns on church property and suggest that this be left up to individual congregations.”

No Recording Rule at Work: Pro and Con

Is it lawful for an employer to prohibit employees from recording (in any fashion) conversations, phone calls, images or company meetings with any recording device unless prior approval is received? That is Whole Foods' policy. Its purpose is to foster open communication, even disagreement. Some workers, who are organizing a union, have won a ruling from the NLRB that strikes down the employer rule as anti-union. I disagree with the ruling, and believe a court of appeals will overturn the ruling. The company policy is long-standing and was not implemented to thwart the union; and more important, its purpose was to increase employee voice, not to suppress or manage it.

Would Trump Overturn "Hostile Work Environment"?

The EEOC is an executive branch agency that issues guidelines on employment discrimination. Courts eventually approve (the legal term is defer) or overturn them. Since 1986, the Supreme Court—even with conservative justices ruling— has deferred to the EEOC’s broad definition of “hostile work environment.” This term has been interpreted by the EEOC and courts to prohibit demeaning words used against women, such as bitch (and much worse), when these words are pervasive and interfere with her work. Recall that it was the aggressive questioning, i.e., the work of the female Fox News reporter, that was the subject of Trump’s deeply demeaning “bleeding” insult.  Is more of this in the future of working women in America?

Sneak Preview! Trump’s Supreme Court Nominees

With Donald Trump appearing to be more electable with each outrageous attack, it’s time to think seriously about his potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Montana District Judge G. Todd: This judge gave an extremely lenient sentence to a rapist after suggesting the 14-year-old assault victim was partly to blame for the crime against her. There’s a big point for Trump’s misogynistic values. The fact that Judge Todd was later censured by the Montana Supreme Court makes him a judicial icon for anti-establishmentarian justice.

U.S. District Chief Judge Richard Cebull. When his robe is off, this guy loves to hate on African-Americans. He was caught sending racist emails about President Obama from his courthouse chambers. His emails also expressed disdain for blacks, Indians, Hispanics, women, some religious faiths, liberal political leaders; other emails contained inappropriate jokes about sexual orientation. Not to worry, he took the hero’s path by retiring the day a panel of his judicial peers severely reprimanded him. Trump voters “would love this guy” (to borrow from the future President’s vernacular).

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore: Likely the most right-wing state judge in the U.S., he fought to have a Ten Commandments displayed in the state Supreme Court. Ignoring orders not to install the display, he did so anyway. Now there’s the kind of judicial activism Trump would admire. Eventually a federal judge ordered him to remove the religious symbol from the public court. When he refused, a nine-judge judicial ethics panel vacated his seat. A few years later, he ran for the court again and Alabama voters put him back on the bench.

Picking on Uber? Read On

Is the media (and this blog) picking on Uber? Take a minute or two to skim pp. 27-37 for a list of the sex offenders, kidnappers, and other violent offenders who have been driving for Uber (in some cases, child sex offenders have given unsupervised rides to kids). The case is People of the State of California v. Uber Technologies, Inc., available here by clicking and scrolling down.  The case is about Uber's false advertising claims that it has the best background checks in the industry. Uber's fine print says that passengers accept all risks by riding in one of their vehicles.

Is Uber Partly Responsible for Kalamazoo Massacre?

Cabs are expensive. But what you get is a driver who has been fingerprinted and cleared through a legal requirement to run a licensed cab business anywhere in the U.S. You also get an employee-- someone who is eligible for health insurance, workers' comp and other benefits. Ninety minutes before he began to kill people, the Kalamazoo gunman picked up a ride for Uber, but drove so dangerously that the man cut the trip short and called 911. It turns out that the driver had started at Uber a few days before and was getting bad reviews online—but still being dispatched rides and picking up unwitting customers. So much for Uber’s lack of licensing and lack of an HR department. 

Yankee Freeloaders

Imagine a nationality group, comprised of young people, who migrate from their country in order to mooch off the host country’s policy of free college education for all. No, we are not talking about Mexicans coming to the U.S. We are talking about Americans going to Germany for free, high quality college education-- in English! Currently, an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens are studying at German colleges -- nearly all of them for free. My thanks to Alan for this lead. Read here for details.