Monday, July 28, 2008

Civil Rights Roundup: 7/28/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news

An Iowa town has become "a flashpoint" for immigration protests after a raid on a meat processing plants. One anti-immigrant protester held a sign saying "What would Jesus do? Obey the law!" Umm...my Christian theology isn't great, but I'm not sure that's strictly accurate.

Maryland might finally be recognized as having eliminated the last vestiges of segregation in its public college system.

McCain flips on affirmative action, announces support of Arizona plan which would ban the program.

On the above issue, though, CNN reports that "McCain's own campaign refused to say whether it stands by the candidate's announcement that he supports the ballot initiative." I wasn't aware that "the McCain campaign" had the authority to trump John McCain as to his own position.

An ex-felon in Florida has founded a group to help other released felons reintegrate into society.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down an expansion of that state's hate crimes laws, ruling that they were unconstitutionally inserted into an unrelated bill.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asks: Should sex offenders be tracked?

A California attorney representing a man shot by a Oakland police officer said he is going to press the state to bring homicide charges against the cop.

Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have an op-ed out calling for the expansion of the ADA.

A new Virginia law requires that all foreign-born inmates be reported to federal authorities. I can't imagine that's constitutional as applied to foreign born U.S. citizens.

Two Muslim women are suing McDonalds, claiming that they were denied positions with the company because they wore the hijab (Muslim headscarf).

Racism slithers in to the campaign Obama runs, the Wichita Eagle reports.

The simmering split between the gay and transgender rights community continues to fester, with LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pulling out of a gay rights rally under heavy pressure from transgender groups angry about the former community's stance on federal anti-discrimination legislation.

Supporters and opponents of flying the Confederate flag near Tampa met to have some "dialogue." It didn't sound very successful.

1 comment:

PG said...

"McCain's own campaign refused to say whether it stands by the candidate's announcement that he supports the ballot initiative." I wasn't aware that "the McCain campaign" had the authority to trump John McCain as to his own position.

One often hears of a candidate's distancing himself from a screwup by his campaign staff, but yeah, CNN has a new one on us if the campaign staff is now distancing itself from a perceived screwup by the candidate.

I think the confusion stems from McCain's equating of "affirmative action" with "government- mandated hiring quotas." Obviously, affirmative action ranges outside just the area of hiring, and there can be affirmative action without quotas. The actual language of the initiatives Connerly currently is sponsoring is:

"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."

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I'm irked by this error in the Wichita Eagle story about Obama: 'his 2004 memoir, "Dreams From my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."'

The memoir was republished in 2004 when Obama was running for the Senate, but was first published in 1995 after Obama attracted media attention for being elected as HLR president. I think it's important to keep that in mind, considering how personal the memoir is, in contrast to "Audacity of Hope."