Not all of these stories are the biggest news items of the week, but they involve some interesting Constitutional issues:
School district sued over graduation held in church03/08/07 The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Newark public school district, saying a school's decision to hold its graduation ceremonies in a Baptist church violated a Muslim student's religious freedom.
Another First Amendment issue involving the "establishment clause" is involved in this story: Conn. Supreme Court Hears Dispute Over Building of Buddhist TempleMarch 7, 2007 Is the Connecticut town denying religious expression or just upholding a reasonable restriction to keep the town from getting overcrowded. What do you think?
Is random drug testing of high school student-athletes an unreasonable violation of the Fourth Amendment's ban on illegal searches and seizures? This debate has been going on for a few years, but is in the news once again. N.J. Debates Effectiveness of Steroid Tests for High School AthletesMarch 8, 2007
What about police who refuse to obey a Court order that they conducted an illegal seizure? What happens when state and federal laws conflict? You can read or listen to this story from NPR: Court Orders Police to Return Medicinal Marijuana In Santa Rosa, Calif., a judge is holding police in contempt of court for not returning the medicinal marijuana they confiscated from a man during a raid. The case highlights the conflict between state and federal drug laws
Other big stories this week:
Did good government lawyers get fired because of their political affiliation? Some think so. Eight lost their jobs, leading Democratic lawmakers to try to rein in presidential powers. The battle over fired US attorneys
Heavy imprint of Libby verdict
The conviction Tuesday of onetime Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby adds to a list of White House woes.
A huge story involved the poor conditions some Iraq & Afghan War Veterans are facing at home. A big expose was done on conditions of some of the buildings at Walter Reed Army Medical Base. US Army scrambles to clean Walter Reed 03/05/2007
Another look: The problems at the US Army hospital show how strained military resources have become - How decay overtook Walter Reed
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
commenting on the public school graduation held in the church. Personally, i have mixed feelings about this. Yes, the school did violate the law because it put a particualr student in a discriminating situation. The school was wrong to hold the graduation at the church, how it was allowed in the first place seems odd to me. However, it does seem unfair to the school that was just trying to find a place to hold the graduation. It seems unfair that the school would have to make special arrangements around one student when trying to accomadate hundreds already. I would think that even if the school decided to do something against the law, they should know better. Since they are a public school, they should have been able to predict the legal fuss.
commenting on the drug testing in highschool: i dont think that it is a violation of your search and seizure rights if you sign up for a sport and you know that drug tests will be happening. if you put your name on a contract in the beginning, then you are subceptable to whatever you signed. also i kindof think it is necissary to preform drug tests on athletes just to make sure that thet are being fair with how they play. professional athletes have to take drug tests, and i think that unprofessional ones should have to take them too.
commenting on the scooter libby article. I'm surprised there is still debate over whether libby should have gone to trial or not. libby was convicted by a jury, why would anyone question his innocence? come on! And, a pardon would be so innapropriate. what makes scooter libby higher than the law? so now do we reward liars in this country?
Also, I agree with the article that the administration is having a tough time of it, having to deal with all the scandals, Libby, Walter Reed, guantanamo, Iraq. man it couldnt have happened to better people....
on regards to the school graduation being held in a church, i think its totally inappropriate. again, seperation of church and state. there is no logical reason why a graduation couldn't be held anywhere else. if you can't book a stadium, use your school's gym. i think that the administration should consider the fact that as long as there are people of different religions, there is going to be controversey over the seperation of church and state.
Commenting on the drug issue in Santa Rosa California. I think its really sad that some guy was arrested under extreme conditions (cops with drawn guns)and he wasn't even acting illegally. It makes me very upset that the cops wouldn't listen to him when he was arrested so they could have known he used the marijuania for medicinal purposes. And although that is a heck of a alot of weed. If he grows it for other people with similar medical conditions who need it i would say he is helping people more then hurting. Drugs are going to be around whether california police likes it or not and since the man was only growing it for people with medical conditions he wouldn't be helping drug trafficers becuase he wouldn't be selling drugs to them. The police is however put into a bad position because the federal law is that pot for any reason is illegal but specifically for cali its allowed for medicinal purposes. I think its the police forces job to follow the laws of the state becuase the cops aren't directly working for the nation there only working for their individual state. So by obiding by California's laws i think the man with chronic back pain should get his medicinal marijuania back.
commenting on drug testing...
i think that if oficials and people in charge think that sterois are becoming an issue than yes all players should be tested. however i think the testing needs to be done in private. also i think it should be all players get tested or no players get tested. it is not fair to test only certain people and traumatize only those certian "lucky" few. A team should do everything together so if this is the case they should all get tested. i also think that all testing should be done pre game so if any tests are positive than just that payer can be punished and not the rest of the hard wrking team.
On the article about the school district suing because of the graduation being held in a church, I completely agree. It is ridiculous that they would hold a school graduation in a church when it offended one of their students. I'm sure there were many other places that they could have held this graduation, it does not make sense that they had to have it there and end up facing all this legal trouble. It also brings us back to the issue of seperating church and state, which this situation does not follow.
hey corragio it's nick,
commenting on the drug tests in school, I do not beleive that it is not a violation of the fourth ammendment, if you sign up for a school sport, you should play fair like everyone else, and if that means that you have to play on jv, then too bad. besides between school work and sports how would you find the time to bedoing drugs anyways, i don't work or do sports, and i barely have enough time in the dayto do all my stuff.
hey corragio it's nick,
so commenting on the graduation being held in the church, i have very mixed feelings, about this, but for the most part i say big deal, partially because of my personal beleifs, partly because i think america is very oversensitive to such issues, think about it, a church if you take away the meaning of the place would be a very good place to hold a cerimony, lots of seating, great acoustics, and a huge podium, i don't see whats so wrong about it.
commenting on the graduation held in a church:
i think the graduation should have been held in a public non offensive place so all students could feel welcome and attend there graduation. I dont think the guy who did not get to go to his graduation should have sued but i do understand why he would be upset. he worked hard to graduate and could not attend? that is wrong and i think a violation of public school laws. The school district never should have had the graduation in a church in the first place oif coursr there would be controversy. i mean we cant even say the pledge anymore because it says "under god"
(this is for when i was absent the last week we did a current event.)
commenting on medical marijuana:
Current event #7: (Was absent)
If the law in some states says it is leagal to have marijuana for medical reasons then the police there need to go by that law as well even if they don't agree with it. when they went into this mans home and took all of his marijuana that was wrong because he had proof that he was a patient and they took it anyway and then would not give it back even when the judge ordered it in court. i almost feel bad for the man because he was not breaking the law in that state but got treated as poorly as if he had broken a law.
Personally i dont think marajuana should be legal even for medical reasons because it just adds to the ongoing battle with drugs in america. Even though i do not agree with the law if that was the law in the state i was in then i would have to deal with it just like the police officers should have.
Post a Comment