In the following, Constitutional lawyer John Whitehead comments on the ex-Marine veteran Brandon Raub’s arrest and the blatant Constitutional violations committed by the local police and FBI agents. Whitehead also addresses the growing abuses power by our government officials.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeKRhAK4l1Q&w=560&h=315]
WASHINGTON, DC — A divided Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law pertaining to the criminalizing of illegal immigrants (for not possessing their federal registration cards while working, applying for work or soliciting work) and warrantless arrests by police, while unanimously affirming the “show me your papers” part of S.B. 1070 that requires police to perform roadside immigration checks of people they determine might be in the country illegally. The Rutherford Institute had filed an amicus curiae brief in State of Arizona v. United States of America asking the Court to declare S.B. 1070 unconstitutional on the grounds that giving police officers broad authority to stop, search and question individuals—citizen and non-citizen alike—based primarily on appearance, race and the personal, subjective views and prejudices of the police, would move our nation yet one step closer to a “police state.”
“While the criminalizing and warrantless arrest provisions in the Arizona immigration law needed to be struck down, unfortunately, this ruling does little to recognize or counteract the real danger inherent in S.B. 1070, which is the erection of a prototype police state in Arizona,” said John W. Whitehead. “By allowing Arizona police to stop and search people, citizens and immigrants alike, based only on their own subjective suspicions and visual observations, and by failing to address the core issue being debated here—namely, whether Americans have any Fourth Amendment protections anymore—the Court has opened the door to a host of abuses, the least of which will be racial profiling. Without fail, we will be revisiting this issue again.”
In April 2010, Arizona enacted S.B. 1070 in response to a perceived crisis in illegal immigration. The law requires law enforcement officials to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if the officer suspects that the person is an unauthorized immigrant. Before such persons may be released, police must determine and verify the person’s immigration status with the federal government. S.B. 1070 also makes it a state crime, punishable by up to 20 days in jail, for an alien legally present in the country not to have in his or her possession an alien registration document. The law also allowed state law enforcement officials to make a warrantless arrest of any person upon probable cause that the person has committed an offense which makes the person removable from the United States under federal immigration laws. The Obama administration challenged the constitutionality of S.B. 1070’s provisions, arguing that they were preempted by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. A federal district court in Arizona agreed, forbidding Arizona from enforcing the law, which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals similarly affirmed.
In weighing in on the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute argued that enforcement of S.B. 1070 poses a threat to the Fourth Amendment rights of all citizens and others because it authorizes officers to make arrests for misdemeanors constituting “excludable” offenses even though the minor offense was not committed in the officer’s presence. Moreover, the requirement that officers determine the immigration status of detainees would require that detentions extend well beyond what is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. S.B. 1070 also poses a threat to rights under the Equal Protection Clause because law enforcement officials will, intentionally or subconsciously, use race as a proxy for decisions about a person’s immigration status, resulting in racial profiling of Hispanics.
The Rutherford Institute has filed an amended First Amendment lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Oregon on behalf of a 28-year-old K-12 bus driver who was fired for displaying a Confederate flag (with the word “redneck” emblazoned across it) on his personal vehicle. Kenneth Webber was fired on March 8, 2011, five days after being suspended for refusing to comply with an order that the flag be removed from his truck while it was parked in the employee parking lot. The amended complaint comes in response to the district court magistrate’s ruling that Webber does not have a cause of action under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution or the Oregon Constitution.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is ‘a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment…that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable,'” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Ken Webber’s case is a clear example of what happens when free speech and political correctness collide. Yet the question that needs to be asked is not whether the Confederate flag represents racism, but whether banning it leads to even greater problems, namely, the loss of freedom. The answer to that is a resounding yes.”
Kenneth Webber, who has been employed by First Student Bus Transportation Services, a company providing services to the Phoenix-Talent School District # 4, for four years, began flying the Confederate flag in the bed of his pickup truck over a year ago. The 3-by-5-foot Confederate flag, which has the word “redneck” emblazoned across it, was a birthday gift from Webber’s father in 2009. Webber drives his truck to work and parks it in the employee lot, which is leased from the school district, before reporting for his duties driving the K-12 bus for the Phoenix-Talent School District.
On March 2, 2011, Webber was called into his supervisor’s office and ordered to remove the flag from his pickup or be suspended from his job. The demand to remove the flag was allegedly made after the school district superintendent visited First Student’s facility and saw the flag on Webber’s truck. The superintendent reportedly requested that Webber remove the flag because “some people find that symbol offensive,” justifying the request by pointing to the fact that the school district is “about 37 percent minority students,” and “we have a policy…about displaying symbols on school property that were racist, or had a potential to be seen as racist.”
Insisting on his right to free expression on his personal vehicle, Webber refused the demand, was suspended and was sent home for the day. The following day, Webber reported to work and was called to meet with two managers, who again demanded that he remove the flag or be suspended, this time for three days. Again, Webber refused and was suspended. On March 8, Webber was called into his manager’s office and was terminated after he again refused to remove the flag from his pickup. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed the original complaint in March 2011.
Webber has insisted that his display of the Confederate flag does not show him to be a racist but a “backyard redneck. I work for what I have. I support my family. It’s just who I am. I’m a redneck. It’s a way of life.” Rutherford Institute attorneys have asked that Webber be given his job back and paid for lost wages.
According to more recent news sources, Pastor Nadarkhani’s death sentence was annulled on Sunday. The Iranian Supreme Court sent the case back to the pastor’s home town and asked the pastor to repent, meaning to renounce his Christian faith.
Christian and human right organizations believe Pastor Nadarkhani is still in danger of losing his life. Even his lawyer was arrested for working with the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights. (See articles by the Christian Post and the Christian Telegraph, and on FarsiNet).
Pastor Nadarkhani’s letter issued in October 2010. Click here to read.
How to help Pator Nadarkhani, visit the website Prisoner Alert.
John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, has called on President Obama to intervene in the impending execution of Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor in Iran who was convicted of apostasy. In a letter to President Obama, which was copied to the Iranian ambassador, members of Congress and other key dignitaries, Whitehead urged the president to demand that Iran abide by its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its own Constitution, which provides that “no one may be molested or taken to task simply for holding a certain belief.”
The Rutherford Institute’s letter on behalf of Youcef Nadarkhani is available at www.rutherford.org.
“If citizens in Iran cannot depend upon the protections of the most basic human rights provided in their own Constitution, then we must offer them the solace of a watching world that is willing to intervene politically,” stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute.
“Surely we cannot stand silently by as this man of faith is martyred. Youcef’s imminent execution presents the United States with an opportunity, and, I submit, a duty, as a beacon of liberty, to interpose its influence and authority on behalf of such inalienable human rights as are inherently beyond legitimate government sanction.”
According to reports by the Assyrian International News Agency, Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was convicted of apostasy after protesting the government’s decision to teach Christian schoolchildren–including Youcef’s own 8- and 6-year-old sons–about Islam. Over the course of the past two years Youcef has spent in prison, he has allegedly suffered various forms of inhumane and irregular punishment, including a denial of access to his attorney, the arrest of his wife, threats to place his two sons in the custody of Muslim families, and the administration of drugs in an attempt to force him to recant his religious faith. Youcef’s sentence to be executed by hanging was recently upheld by the Iranian Supreme Court. It is reported that the death sentence may be carried out at any given time without advance notice. Youcef will likely be ordered once again to recant his faith, and if he refuses, he will be executed immediately.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about the Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
The Rutherford Institute has come to the aid of a Pennsylvania elementary school student who was prohibited by school officials from passing out Christian pamphlets to her classmates during non-instructional time. Institute attorneys contacted Northwest Area School District officials after being contacted by the family of third grader Felicia Clark. In their letter to school officials, Institute attorneys are demanding that the unconstitutional prohibition imposed upon Felicia’s expression of her religious beliefs be lifted, pointing out that the school’s actions violate federal and state laws regarding free speech.
“It’s a sad reflection on the state of our public schools that so many school officials remain ignorant about the rights enshrined in the Constitution, especially the First Amendment’s right to free speech and religious expression,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Rather than stifling speech in violation of the Constitution, as they have done in Felicia Clark’s case, school officials should be teaching their young charges about their rights, and the best way to do that is by championing the rights of students to communicate their ideas to one another, religious or not.”
Felicia’s grandmother, Susan Robbins, contacted The Rutherford Institute after Felicia Clark, a third grader at Northwest Intermediate School in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, came home crying from school. Felicia’s teacher had informed her that she could no longer hand out Christian tracts on the playground or elsewhere at school because it was against the law. When confronted by the grandmother, the principal affirmed the teacher’s directive and stated that the prohibition was being imposed because some parents had complained about the materials Felicia handed out.
In its letter to the school principal, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute point out that forbidding Felicia from passing out religious tracts violates her right to free speech under the First Amendment and the Pennsylvania Constitution. The letter also cites regulations of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education which specifically recognize the right of students to distribute literature and pamphlets while at school, and which provide that this right of expression may be limited only if the student’s speech substantially interferes with the educational process, threatens serious harm to the school community, encourages unlawful activity, or interferes with the rights of other students.
According to the letter, a blanket prohibition on Felicia’s speech is improper and any restriction should be limited to those students whose parents request their children not receive the material. Insisting that Felicia be allowed to exercise her right to free expression, Institute attorneys have asked for a response from school officials by the close of business on Friday, March 25.
Posted in family, news, politics, schools
Tagged first amendment rights, Rutherford Institute, U.S. Constitution
The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a 28-year-old kindergarten bus driver who was fired for displaying a Confederate flag on his personal vehicle. Kenneth Webber was fired on March 8, 2011, five days after being suspended for refusing to comply with an order that the flag be removed from his truck while it was parked in the employee parking lot. Webber has insisted that his display of the Confederate flag does not show him to be a racist but a “backyard redneck. I work for what I have. I support my family. It’s just who I am. I’m a redneck. It’s a way of life.” Institute attorneys have charged Webber’s supervisor at First Student Bus Transportation Services, a company providing services to the Phoenix-Talent School District # 4, with violating his First Amendment right to free expression, as well as his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection.
“This is a clear case of political correctness run amok,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Clearly, under the First Amendment, employment cannot be conditioned on forfeiting the right to the freedom of expression.”
Kenneth Webber, who has been employed by First Student Bus Transportation Services, a company providing services to the Phoenix-Talent School District # 4, for four years, began flying the Confederate flag in the bed of his pickup truck about a year ago. The 3-by-5-foot Confederate flag, which has the word “Redneck” emblazoned across it, was a birthday gift from Webber’s father in 2009. Webber drives his truck to work and parks it in the employee lot, which is leased from the school district, before reporting for his duties driving the kindergarten bus for Talent Elementary School.
On March 2, 2011, Webber was called into his supervisor’s office and ordered to remove the flag from his pickup or be suspended from his job. The demand to remove the flag was allegedly made after the school district superintendent visited First Student’s facility and saw the flag in Webber’s truck. The superintendent reportedly requested that Webber remove the flag because “some people find that symbol offensive,” justifying the request by pointing to the fact that the school district is “about 37 percent minority students,” and “we have a policy…about displaying symbols on school property that were racist, or had a potential to be seen as racist.”
Insisting on his right to free expression in his personal vehicle, Webber refused the demand, was suspended and was sent home for the day. The following day, Webber reported to work and was called to meet with two managers, who again demanded that he remove the flag or be suspended, this time for three days. Again, Webber refused and was suspended. On March 8, Webber was called into his manager’s office and was terminated after he again refused to remove the flag from his pickup. “My flag will fly,” said Webber. “No one here is gonna tell me what I can and can’t believe in.” Rutherford Institute attorneys have demanded that First Student restore Webber’s job, pointing to a 2002 victory in which the City of Topeka, Kansas, was found to have violated the First Amendment rights of a city employee by forbidding him from parking his vehicle with Confederate flag vanity license plates in the City’s employee parking lot.
Source: Rutherford Institute News, March 9, 2011.
Posted in news, politics, schools
Tagged bus driver, First Amendment, rights, Rutherford Institute
