The McCormick Foundation Civics Program seeks to improve access to quality civic education and engagement opportunities in Chicagoland for youth ages 12-22. For more information about our organization, click here.

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May 15, 2012

Five Freedoms

Twitter Hits Back at Court, Prosecutors Over ‘Occupy’ Order In its motion to quash, Twitter pointed out to the judge that the order would essentially force the company to break the law by handing over data without a warrant. Twitter also took issue with the judge’s ruling that the account holder had no right to fight the order on his own behalf.(Wired Magazine)

Twitter complies with Va. police request on posts The Twitter social-media website plans to turn over the records of four accounts sought by Norfolk police seeking information on the assault of two newspaper reporters by a mob last month.(AP)

Sumner bans novel over teen sex scene The district banned the book from its assigned classroom reading list, becoming at least the second in the state, after Knox County in March, to keep students from reading it together in class.(The Tennessean)

Facebook friend or high school principal? Students can't be sure The resignation comes as Americans are trying to figure out just how much of their social media profiles they want private, while many powers-that-be — law enforcement agencies, employers, school officials — are trying to figure out how much monitoring they can get away with. (CT)

Fifty Shades of Grey too steamy for some libraries Even in the age of e-books and tablets, banning a book from a public library still carries weight because libraries still play such a vital role in providing people access to books.(AP)

Fla. city uses robocalls to fight nuisance signs In Hollywood, companies who want their number removed from the robocall list have to come to city hall, acknowledge the signs have been picked up and pay a fine. Fines range from $75 to $250 depending on how many violations a company has had.(AP)

Cop cuffed cursing man, who will get his day in court A Georgia man arrested and placed in tight handcuffs on Christmas Eve after cursing at a police officer will have his day in court on his civil rights claim. A federal district judge has ruled that a former Georgia State Patrol officer violated the man’s First, Fourth and Eighth Amendment rights during the incident.(AP)

Google report says search results protected by First Amendment In a report commissioned by the search giant (PDF), Volokh asserts that search results are a type of "opinion" based on what information the search engines believe would be most relevant to their users, according to news site PaidContent. Therefore, the results are protected by the First Amendment.(CNET)

Texting While Walking Ban: Fort Lee Imposes $85 Fines On Dangerous Texters As a slew of U.S. states have passed laws to ban texting while driving, one New Jersey town upped the ante with its texting-while-walking ban.(HP)

Candidate for judge faces trial, charged with stealing rival's campaign signs Boyd, a veteran Chicago attorney, was arrested by Chicago police about 2 a.m. the day before the March 20 primary while allegedly in the possession of a dozen signs promoting the campaign of primary rival Chester Slaughter. (CT)

Oswego School Board files complaint against itself The complaint cites five separate meetings of the School Board in executive session that went unrecorded because board members present at the meeting did not set up the recorder properly. Under Illinois’ Open Meetings Act, government bodies must make audio recordings of all meetings in closed session.(Aurora Beacon News)

Appeals court grants wax seal to Maker’s Mark Noting that “all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon,” an opinion released May 9 by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that only the Kentucky-made bourbon can carry the distinctive bottle topper.(AP)

Calif. county court releases improperly withheld records Shasta County court officials have released documents in thousands of criminal cases dating back to the mid-1980s that were improperly sealed, after a local newspaper argued they were public records.(AP)

Mich. appeals court: Pastor can’t testify about teen’s confession A pastor who told police about a teenager’s confession to a sexual assault cannot testify against him, the Michigan Court of Appeals said this week, ruling that such admissions between clergy and a church member are confidential.(AP)

NY Seeks to Deny Murderers Spousal Burial Rights A bill in New York's Legislature is aimed at ending that power of an abusive spouse even in death. It would prohibit spouses charged with murder or subject to restraining orders from dictating what happens to the bodies of the wives or husbands they're accused of killing, said Republican Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer of Erie County, the bill's main sponsor.(AP)

Boy on a Bike Becomes Moscow's Tiananmen Image As a bloody skirmish between police and opposition activists in central Moscow was drawing to a close on Sunday a small boy on a tiny bicycle pedaled through the crowd and approached a line of hulking riot police.(ABC)

Judge tosses defamation suit vs. Syracuse, Boeheim A judge has thrown out a defamation lawsuit brought against Syracuse University and men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim by two men who said the Hall of Fame coach slandered them when he said their accusations of sexual abuse against former associate head coach Bernie Fine were driven by greed.(AP)

Unions That Divide: Churches Split Over Gay Marriage Religion is on both sides in this conflict. The battle is actually church versus church, minister versus minister, and Scripture versus Scripture.(NYT)

Muslim woman gets huge award in workplace discrimination case She said she had already endured years of harassment by co-workers and had started pursuing a religious discrimination case against her employer when the supervisor, during a routine meeting in his office, snatched her scarf and exposed her hair. (Kansas City Star)

Ind. Diocese Denies Discrimination Over IVF An Indiana diocese asked a federal court on Monday to reject a lawsuit by a former parochial school teacher who claims she was fired for violating Roman Catholic doctrine by using in vitro fertilization to try to get pregnant.(AP)

Kan. Senate approves anti-Islamic law measure A bill designed to prevent Kansas courts or government agencies from making decisions based on Islamic or other foreign legal codes has cleared the state Legislature after a contentious debate about whether the measure upholds American values or appeals to prejudice against Muslims.(AP)

Military college course suspended for its view on Islam The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam. (AP)

Secular group sues state over its marriage law A secular group has filed a federal lawsuit claiming Indiana’s marriage law is unconstitutional because it doesn’t allow people without religious or civic authority to perform marriages.(Indianapolis Star)

Occupy protesters plan to march without permits, target Boeing at NATO summit Occupy Chicago will join with fellow demonstrators in the large formal marches planned for next weekend's NATO summit but also plan their own protests, including one aimed at Boeing Co., organizers say. (CT)

Protesters rush into building housing Obama campaign headquarters Dozens of demonstrators dashed into the Loop building housing President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters this morning, slipping past security guards and running up escalators as they kicked off what they called a "Week Without Capitalism." (CT)

A Dozen Writers Put Down Their Pens to Prove the Might of a March A week ago, when a large demonstration near the Kremlin ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and the police, the authorities signaled that they would hesitate to grant further permits for opposition marches. By evening on Monday, the day of Mr. Putin’s inauguration, the police had detained more than 700 people, some of them simply because they wore white ribbons.(NYT)

Student Freedoms

Same-sex couple barred from Lexington Catholic prom When the couple tried to enter the school's gymnasium, where the prom was held, they were turned away, so Wright said they held their own prom in the school's parking lot. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Phoenix high school baseball team balks over having to face team with a girl in title game Paige Sultzbach is a freshman at Mesa Preparatory Academy, which had been scheduled to play Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in tonight's Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship at Phoenix College. But Our Lady of Sorrows, a fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix that lost twice to Mesa Prep during the regular season, chose to forfeit the championship game rather than play a team fielding a female player. (Arizona Republic)

Dismissal of University Free Speech Case Upheld A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of first amendment claims against the University of Minnesota by the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), who claimed the University's decision to place its website on a list of "unreliable websites" chilled free speech and defamed the non-profit organization. (Courthouse News Service)

Florida A&M Band Suspension Remains in Place Florida A&M University's celebrated band, the Marching 100, will remain on suspension until the university can put in place strong antihazing measures, the university's president said Monday.(NYT)

Confederate flag prom dress keeps TN student from celebration School officials said a teacher warned Edwards about two months ago that the dress might not be acceptable. The teacher, who served as prom sponsor, expressed concern and suggested to Edwards in February that she should clear the idea with the principal, but Edwards did not do so, said Eddie Pruett, director of schools for the Gibson County School System.(The Tennessean)

Amanda Dougherty, Junior At Catholic High School, Banned From Prom For Having No Date School administrators at Archbishop John Carroll High School alerted her that a rule by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia banned students from attending the dance without a date.(HP)

Tenn. yearbook's profile of gay student brings calls for investigation Some community members are asking for an investigation of the yearbook adviser at Lenoir City High School, after the 2012 book included an article about an openly gay student. (SPLC)

Cornell employee removes student newspaper pages ahead of campus tour About 30 to 40 issues of The Cornell Daily Sun student newspaper were stripped of their covers by a Cornell University employee April 20 to prevent prospective students and parents from seeing them. (SPLC)

Soccer coach in hot water for trashing 150 copies of college newspaper Central Connecticut State University’s men’s soccer coach faces a meeting with his boss after acknowledging he took stacks of the university’s student newspaper and threw them in the garbage last week.(AP)

University of Vermont newspapers disappear from stands At least 200 copies of the University of Vermont’s student newspaper were taken from stands last week after the paper published a front page full of crime stories. (SPLC)

This Prom Has Everything, Except for Boys Ignoring the naysayers who could not imagine anyone coming to a prom without boys, Tharima and her friends approached their task systematically, taking a survey of all the girls at Hamtramck High. They found that 65 percent were not able to attend the coed prom because of cultural and religious beliefs. After discussion, the school supported the student-driven alternative.(NYT)

Lakeview to pray at graduation A student-led prayer will be part of this month’s Lakeview High School graduation, despite continued pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union to end the years-old tradition. (Columbus Telegram)

Prom With a Twist Local churches host the seventh annual Mormon Prom for students—and parents—who prefer their environments a little more tame.(Mission Viejo Patch)

Teens Must Be With Parents At Night At NorthPark NorthPark is enforcing a new “code of conduct” that requires anyone 17 or younger to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian while inside the mall after 6:00 p.m.(CBS DFW)

Protesters: No jail for ex-student in webcam case The mother of the former Rutgers student convicted of hate crimes in a webcam spying case says her son does not deserve jail time. (AP)

Tennessee Tech policy violated First Amendment A Kentucky man who wanted to share his Christian beliefs on a Tennessee college campus has won a case before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after police asked him to leave because he didn't give two weeks notice and didn't disclose what he wanted to talk about.(The Tennessean)

The Struggle Continues

Florida Supreme Court hears arguments of immigrants facing deportation due to plea deals The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in three cases Tuesday that could redefine the responsibilities of lawyers in criminal cases where immigrant defendants could face deportation by pleading guilty.(Palm Beach Post)

Despite Opposition, Immigration Agency to Expand Fingerprint Program Obama administration officials have announced that a contentious fingerprinting program to identify illegal immigrants will be extended across Massachusetts and New York next week, expanding federal enforcement efforts despite opposition from the governors and immigrant groups in those states.(NYT)

N.J. judge protects alleged drug dealer's BlackBerry password State Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz ruled that a Vergara did not have to turn over his password because it would violate his Fifth Amendment rights - which protects defendants from self-incrimination.(CBS News)

Smaller Parties Clamor to Make California Ballot Two political parties claim in Federal Court that California's ballot rules and deadlines are keeping their nominees off November's presidential ballot. (Courthouse News)

N.C. to add marriage amendment to its constitution North Carolina has become the 31st state to add an amendment on marriage to its constitution, with voters banning same-sex marriage and barring legal recognition of unmarried couples by state and local governments. North Carolina is the last state in the South to add such an amendment, and supporters hoped for a resounding victory. (News and Observer)

Calif. may ban gay-teen ‘conversion’ therapy A first-of-its-kind ban on a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight is speeding through the California Legislature. Supporters say the legislation, which passed its final Senate committee yesterday, is necessary because such treatments are ineffective and harmful. (AP)

Court affirms illegal immigrants can't have guns A federal appeals court has rejected an illegal immigrant's claim that the Second Amendment guarantees him the right to bear firearms. (AP)

Blind Rockaway Township gun collector will have weapons returned to him A blind gun collector can keep his gun permit and will have the weapons previously seized from his house by police returned to him, following a judge’s order handed down Friday in Superior Court in Morristown.(Star-Ledger)

Baby, 18 months old, ordered off plane at Fort Lauderdale airport She and her parents had just boarded a JetBlue flight when an airline employee approached them and asked them to get off the plane, saying representatives from the Transportation Security Administration wanted to speak to them.(WPBF)

FAA issues warning to passenger who filmed bird strike A Delta Air Lines passenger who admitted using an electronic device last month to videotape a bird strike minutes after takeoff has been warned by the Federal Aviation Administration to follow the rules or face a penalty the next time.(CNN)

Federal appeals court strikes down Illinois eavesdropping law A federal appeals court in Chicago ruled today that Illinois’ eavesdropping law “likely violates” the First Amendment and ordered that authorities be banned from enforcing it. (CT)

DuPage County rejects plans for Islamic center in house near West Chicago The DuPage County Board on Tuesday voted 15-3 to reject plans to allow an Islamic group to use a house in an unincorporated area in the northwest part of the county for a prayer center.(CT)

Florida Supreme Court hears landmark foreclosure suit The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday in a landmark lawsuit that could undo hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and open up banks to severe financial penalties in the state where they face the bulk of their foreclosure-fraud litigation. (Reuters)

Justice and the Courts

Gov. Chris Christie vetoes 'health exchange' bill tied to federal health care reform law Insisting the state should wait until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether federal health care reform is constitutional, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill today that would form a "health exchange," an online marketplace small employers and uninsured people would use to shop for low-cost coverage.(NJ.com)

Who gets to keep shipwreck treasure? Supreme Court declines Spain case. Lower courts ruled that $500 million in coins that US treasure hunters had recovered belongs to Spain. The Supreme Court turned away the salvagers’ appeal Monday.(CSM)

This Day in History

On May 15, 1942, a bill establishing a women's corps in the U.S. Army becomes law, creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACs) and granting women official military status. It would take until 1978 before the Army would become sexually integrated, and women participating as merely an "auxiliary arm" in the military would be history. And it would not be until 1980 that 16,000 women who had joined the earlier WAACs would receive veterans' benefits.(History.com)

Source Abbreviations:

AP: Associated Press; BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation; BG: Boston Globe; BS: Baltimore Sun; BW: Business Week; CR: Chicago Reader; CSM: Christian Science Monitor; CST: Chicago Sun-Times; CT: Chicago Tribune; DH: Daily Herald; DMN: Dallas Morning DP: Denver Post; Drudge Report; EP: Editor & Publisher; FAC: First Amendment Center; HC: Houston Chronicle; HP: Huffington Post; IHT: International Herald Tribune; LAT: Los Angeles Times; MH: Miami Herald; MJS: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; NW: Newsweek; NYT: New York Times; PI: Philadelphia Inquirer; PEIJ: Project for Excellence in Journalism; RCP: Real Clear Politics; SC: San Francisco Chronicle; SJR: State Journal-Register; SLPD: St. Louis Post-Dispatch; SPI: Seattle Post-Intelligencer; SPLC: Student Press Law Center; SPT: St. Petersburg Times; ST: Seattle Times; TH: Townhall.com; UNWP: U.S. News and World Report; USA: USA Today; WP: Washington Post; WSJ: Wall Street Journal; WT: Washington Times.

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