Ginsburg Dissents Ginsburg Dissents Offer Bright Spots in Two Disappointing Supreme Court Rulings
From the Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy
June 29th Supreme Court ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano was disappointing, but it's what we have come to expect from the conservative majority....
The City of New Haven, Conn., was right to question the results of the promotion test given to firefighters, based on its disparate impact on African-American and Hispanic candidates. We know that such tests can exhibit race and gender bias, and city officials correctly threw out the test and began anew in order to create a level playing field for all those seeking promotions.
The federal district court that first reviewed the case determined that the city was making an effort to comply with Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964 by invalidating the test, and was not discriminating against the candidates who did qualify for promotions. A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit -- which included current nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- agreed with the lower court's "thorough, thoughtful, and well-reasoned opinion" that the City of New Haven was "simply trying to fulfill its obligations under Title VII when confronted with test results that had a disproportionate racial impact."
A dissent authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg contends that the ruling opinion "ignores substantial evidence of multiple flaws in the tests New Haven used. The Court similarly fails to acknowledge the better tests used in other cities, which have yielded less racially skewed outcomes." Ginsburg also noted that: "Firefighting is a profession in which the legacy of racial discrimination casts an especially long shadow. . . . It is against this backdrop of entrenched inequality that the promotion process at issue in this litigation should be assessed."
Just last week, the Supreme Court made what initially appeared to be a commendable ruling in the case of a 13-year-old girl who had been strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen. In an 8-1 ruling, the court said that Savana Redding's constitutional rights were indeed violated by the search.
Having found that Redding's rights were violated, the Supreme Court, by a smaller majority, also ruled that the very school officials responsible for the strip-search could not be held liable for their actions. The justices left it to the lower courts to determine whether the school district itself could be held liable. On the question of liability, Justices Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens dissented, with Ginsburg arguing that the school vice principal's "treatment of Redding was abusive and it was not reasonable for him to believe that the law permitted it."
Women's rights? What does the UUA say? The Unitarian Universalist Association has a history of supporting women's rights. The Clara Barton Washington Internship for Women's Issues was endowed by generous contributions from the UU Women's Federation and other supporters.
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Fall at the Lake UU Women's Connection 2009 Fall Retreat at Lake Geneva
November 6-7-8,
George Williams College/Aurora University, Williams Bay Wisconsin.
THEME "It is What it is...Healing in Hard Times."
Keynote: Reverend Rebecca Armstrong of Chicago
Reverend Armstrong has graduate degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Unitarian seminary and Chicago Theological Seminary that have prepared her to work with rigorous intellectual and spiritual honesty. Her passion for interfaith dialogue has led her around the world, including a pilgrimage to India where she met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Hosts for this fall weekend on the lake are the women of the Oak Park, Illinois Unity UU Temple
Take advantage of the NEW RETREAT PAYMENT PLAN announced this spring by the UU Women's Connection. This plan also offers opportunities to attend through scholarship and grants. So do not miss this opportunity to refresh, revive, retreat in this beautiful fall retreat's 28th year on Lake Geneva. Click Here To Read More....
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New Program: Let Us Have Cakes
After a great experience with the newly revised and expanded Cakes for the Queen of Heaven Curriculum CMwD Train-the-Trainers program in 2008 the UU Women's Connection Council has added "Cup Cakes" to its traveling bag of programming tricks. Interested in a Cup Cakes introduction to the feminist curriculum that could easily be an introduction to facilitating it at your congregation? Think about hosting the council for one of our quarterly meetings in 2010. Contact us for information On This Date in History
June 30, 1982 On March 22, 1972 the senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment prohibiting sexual discrimination. It was then sent to the states for ratification and despite the 1978 extension was only ratified by thirty-five of the required thirty-eight states and failed to pass. New Push For Women's Constitutional Equality
Continuing a nearly century long movement to write women's equality into the U.S. Constitution, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the Women's Equality Amendment in spring of 2007. Leaders from NOW, Feminist Majority, the National Council of Women's Organizations and other feminist groups united with members of Congress to launch the joint resolutions.
Women were not included in the Constitution at the founding of our country. For the entire history of the United States, women have been purposely disadvantaged by the lack of a constitutional guarantee of equality. Known for decades as the ERA, the first equal rights amendment was authored by suffragist Alice Paul and introduced into Congress in 1923. The ERA passed the House in 1971 and the Senate in 1972. After a valiant and tireless effort by NOW and thousands of activists, the ERA was ratified by 35 states before being stopped three states short of ratification by a time deadline in June,1982.
The passage of such an amendment would be a crucial step toward eradicating pervasive gender discrimination in employment, insurance, health care, education, social security and other sectors, and the survival of existing protections, like Title VII (employment discrimination) and Title IX (equal educational opportunities), would not be at the whim of the Congress and the courts.
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LATEST LINKS TO BE ADDED:
National Organization of Women
Women's Media Center
Cakes for the Queen of Heaven
Rise Up and Call Her Name
To see all the links and a description of the link, go to the Resources Page.
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