Posted on 12/18/2018 6:12:55 AM PST by C19fan
A children's speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech.
The child language specialist, Bahia Amawi, is a U.S. citizen who received a master’s degree in speech pathology in 1999 and, since then, has specialized in evaluations for young children with language difficulties (see video below). Amawi was born in Austria and has lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years, fluently speaks three languages (English, German, and Arabic), and has four U.S.-born American children of her own.
(Excerpt) Read more at theintercept.com ...
Concur. This will most likely be overturned on appeal or she will get a rather sizable payout from a civil suit.
Austin? What is missing from this story?
The oath was passed by the Texas legislature.
Unless I’m missing something I don’t see how they can force someone to take an Oath like this. Texas is going to flip blue because they are being flooded by Mexicans but I guess supporting a foreign country is more important.
A lawsuit she should easily win, and deservedly so.
This is a great test case.
The State of Texas will lose.
Almost like the Austin lawyers looked far and wide for a way to bust the Texas legislature.
The law passed in reaction to the same lefty lawyers who pushed BDS. It may not be legal but if the legislature passed it, it is a law.
I'll bet that a lot is missing from this story.
Strange that the left now decides that the First Amendment applies to individuals.
> This is a great test case. <
It sure is. Let’s say you’re a car salesman, working for Ford. And Ford demands that you sign a paper promising to buy only Ford products. You refuse. So Ford fires you.
Is that legal? I think so. The First Amendment only protects free speech from government suppression. It does not protect free speech in general.
But here we have not a private company, but a government school. So yes, this will be an interesting case.
Agreeing that she will not engage in Nazi-style boycotts against the Jewish State is hardly a “pro-Israel oath.” Typical that the anti-American louse Greenwald would be pushing this
I’m betting that the school would NEVER even think about insisting that she sign an oath of loyalty to the United States as part of the requirement to have her job.
“I have no sympathy for the BDSers but this is wrong. She refused to to take an oath that has nothing to do with her job”
Boycotting is against Texas law. She is being asked to obey the law.
An unconstitutional law.
Why would any teacher in the U.S. be forced to sign something oaths to foreign countries?! Sorry ... this is wrong!
BDS is an organized academic movement that is expressly committed to using employers’ time to interfere with a foreign government. Preventing such a disrupter in government schools is an obligation to taxpayers.
Wow ... grammar much?! LOL
Let me try this again ...
Why would any teacher in the U.S. be forced to sign some sort of oath related to a foreign country?! Sorry ... this is wrong!
...she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation... Bahia Amawi, is a U.S. citizen who... was born in Austria and has lived in the U.S. for the last 30 years
IOW, she's not a Jew-hating Austrian-born muzzie, she's a liberty-lovin' red-blooded American.
It’s law, but it’s a law that is at extremely high risk of being overturned.
Maybe. . .but until successfully challenged in court, it stands.
The article states 26 red and blue states have passed anti-BDS laws wrt Israel, with bills pending in 13 more. The ACLU and Mohammedan organizations must be challenging these statutes in court. Private sector employers can and do impose behavior requirements on its employees. The question is may governments do the same? I know that the DoD restricts uniformed, civilian, and contractor personnel from conducting political activities on its properties. The school district might have a case, if the prohibition applies when the woman is at work.
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