Free Republic

Saint Louis -- Walgreen Co. engaged in religious discrimination by "effectively firing" three Illinois pharmacists who refused to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, a public-interest group alleged Wednesday. The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, said it had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The group said the pharmacists were put on unpaid leave Nov. 28 because the drug store chain said they violated a state rule mandating that such prescriptions be filled. "Since the pharmacists believe that human life begins at conception, they conclude that dispensing such drugs would require them...

          Joseph Ray Terry had all the right credentials:  as a lawyer, he had spent many years fighting discrimination against minorities.  His employer, the EEOC, had consistently given Mr. Terry "superior" and "excellent" performance reviews.  But Mr. Terry was white, and he was forced to repeatedly sue the EEOC in order to win a promotion for which he had been applying for over 10 years!           Mr. Terry is a white, Louisiana-trained lawyer.  In 1984 he submitted his first application within EEOC to become a district director for EEOC.  Over the next 10 years EEOC repeatedly turned Terry down because...

MULTICULTURALISM'S NASCENT STRESS POINTS Paul Craig Roberts Do you know that there are 15,000 Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces? Are you aware that the U.S. military has Muslim imams? Following September 11, Capt. Abd Al-Rasheed Muhammad, Imam of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., asked the North American Islamic Jurisprudence Council if it is permissible for Muslim troops in the U.S. military to fight other Muslims in the war against terrorism. The council referred the matter to Muslim clerics abroad, who issued a fatwa permitting U.S. Muslims to fight if there was "no alternative." Whew. The chain ...

Screaming and yelling by men at work may now be sex-based discrimination if women at work find the behavior more intimidating than men do. On September 2, 2005, in E.E.O.C. v. National Education Association, (No. 04-35029), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the “reasonable woman” standard applies to workplace abusive conduct, even if there is no sexual content to the behavior. This decision significantly expands the types of behaviors that may furnish a basis for a claim of discrimination. Three women working for a labor union, the National Education Association, sued for gender discrimination claiming that the NEA...

(PRWEB) - Beverly Hills, CA. (PRWEB) September 2, 2005 -- A final decision was issued in the complaint of discrimination filed by former Customs and Border Protection Officer Julia Davis against the Department of Homeland Security (EEOC No. 340-04-00317X). The Honorable Administrative Judge Daniel Leach found the Agency liable, awarding to Julia Davis damages, attorney fees and costs in excess of $225,000.00 dollars. Ms. Davis was represented by Beverly Hills attorney David Ross of Ross, Rose and Hammill, LLP. Judge Leach ruled that Ms. Davis "established agency culpability of an egregious sort and has been awarded a significant sum in...

When Anthony Kennedy was nominated for the... Supreme Court in 1987, the president of [NOW] called him "sexist" for ruling against a comparable worth pay system for Washington state when he served on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This time around, Senator Olympia Snowe is doing the honors for John Roberts. Comp worth... was a feminist rallying cry taken up by Walter Mondale in his 1984 run for President. The idea was to guarantee that women who worked in jobs dominated by women (say, nurses or secretaries) would earn as much as men who worked in "comparable" jobs dominated...

Harassing the Tomb Raider? Harassing the tomb raider? That’s pretty much what happened when an Angelina Jolie stand-in went to work for the Department of Homeland Security! The Homeland employee once worked as Angelina Jolie’s stunt double before she joined the government, where she thought she would be making America safe from the real-life bad guys. Only it turns out at least one bad guy was on the inside of the agency. The employee claimed her civil service turned into a made-for-the-movies nightmare when her supervisor started stalking her. She claimed she was the victim of sexual harassment and even...

Angelina Jolie’s Former Stunt Double Wins EEOC Case Against the Department of Homeland Security Beverly Hills, CA. June 21, 2005 – (PR Web) A decision was reached in the complaint of discrimination filed by former Customs and Border Protection Officer Julia Davis against the Department of Homeland Security (EEOC No. 340-04-00317X). The Honorable Administrative Judge Daniel Leach presided in the hearing held in San Diego, CA earlier this year and has found that Julia Davis was subjected to sexual harassment by the Agency’s Senior Supervisor; that she both properly and timely used Agency procedures to complain about the harassment; and...

Posted on Thu, Feb. 10, 2005 Muslim pilot wasn't discriminated against, judge says BY PETER SHINKLE St. Louis Post-Dispatch ST. LOUIS - (KRT) - A federal judge dismissed without a trial the claims of a Muslim pilot that Trans States Airlines, based in Bridgeton, Mo., discriminated against him when it fired him a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. Magistrate Thomas C. Mummert III ruled in a summary judgment that attorneys for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and pilot failed to provide evidence that Trans States acted out of a "discriminatory attitude." Instead, there was "uncontroverted" evidence that...

The owner of a US company who forced his employees to quit smoking or leave their jobs has now said he also wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else. His ban on tobacco use, at home or in the workplace, led four employees to quit their jobs last week at Michigan-based Weyco, which handles insurance claims, reports Reuters. The employees refused to take a mandatory urine test required of Weyco's 200 staff by founder and sole owner Howard Weyers, a demand he said was legal. "If they don't want to take the test, they can leave," Weyers...

LOS ANGELES - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has agreed to pay $40 million to black, Hispanic and Asian employees and job applicants to settle a class-action federal discrimination lawsuit that accused the clothing retailer of promoting whites at the expense of minorities, lawyers said Tuesday. The settlement, approved Tuesday morning by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, requires the company to adhere to a consent decree that calls for the implementation of new policies and programs to promote diversity and prevent discrimination in its workforce. Abercrombie & Fitch also must pay about $10 million to monitor compliance and cover attorneys'...

The plaintiff's allegations were familiar to legal experts: a boorish boss demanded sexual favors, made lewd comments and groped his employee. The worker's complaints were ignored or met with reduced hours and threats of dismissal. The suit filed in Urbana, Ill., against Federal Express Corp. was one of at least four filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently citing companies in four states. These cases, though, have a twist: all involve same-sex harassment, a complaint becoming increasingly familiar across the country and highlighted in August by a former aide's allegation that he was harassed by New Jersey Gov. James...

CHICAGO (CBS 2) Audra Soulias, 28, filed a civil suit against William Kennedy Smith on Tuesday, five years after she says he forced her into his home, and sexually assaulted her. Audra Soulias isn't the only woman who's making allegations against Smith. The 2 Investigators have obtained confidential information involving sexual harassment allegations by a number of women who worked for Smith and traveled with him to foreign countries. "I think he is a person who has a lot of problems. He is obviously very sick," said Soulias. Audra Soulias is talking about her former boss William Kennedy Smith. She...

L.A. employees say white women created hostile environment Several black and Hispanic male employees of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles have filed multiple complaints of racism against the organization, charging they were the subject of constant slurs in a hostile, anti-male environment controlled by white women. The employees made the allegations in sworn affidavits filed with California's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, and Fair Employment & Housing Administration, or FEHA. According to an EEOC affidavit filed by employee Nnamdi Nkwuda, a member of Planned Parenthood's management "used the word nigger directed to me." "I am African and was shocked...

A New York traffic cop who was ordered to shave his beard and denied permission to wear a turban while on duty has been reinstated. The city's Commission of Human Rights ruled this week that the beard and the turban are religious symbols. Officer Jasjit Singh Jaggi, a member of the Sikh religion, was forced to resign from the NYPD because he insisted on keeping his beard and wearing a turban despite orders to get rid of both. The New York Sun reported today that a police department spokesman said, "Upon reinstatement, he will meet with the office of equal...

Lockheed Martin Corp., the Bethesda-based defense contracting giant, permitted a racially hostile work environment for black employees "to grow in intensity" at its Meridian, Miss., plant until an employee shot 14 workers -- 12 of them black -- there last summer, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation has found. The July 8, 2003, shootings by Lockheed worker Doug Williams left six of the victims dead, four of whom were black. Williams killed himself at the scene. The determination was made in a private letter dated July 6 from the EEOC's Jackson, Miss., office.

Racial sparks fly at council meeting By JOHN FUQUAY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Lubbock City Councilman Frank Morrison was jeered during a council meeting Thursday after telling members of the audience he was outraged by their criticism of the council's efforts to hire a new city manager. Eleven speakers rebuked the council, and many said they believe race was a factor in the council's decision to reject two minority finalists for city manager, including former Interim City Manager Tommy Gonzalez. Council members sat silently until Morrison asked to speak at the end of the session. He said he had felt a number of...

Dec. 11— While she was working at cosmetics store Sephora in New York City's Rockefeller Center, Leydis Rodriguez says she was prohibited from speaking Spanish at all times. "We were not allowed to speak our native language on the floor … and on our lunch break," she says. Rodriguez and four other women all say they were told to speak English on the job, including during their breaks, and that managers frequently mimicked their speech and accents. "I would feel really bad, angry at them, and discriminated [against]," says Mariela Del Rosario, one of the women filing the suit. When...

(CNSNews.com) - General Motors has turned down an offer from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to mediate a dispute involving a worker who wants to organize Christian activities for employees. Employee John Moranski, who works in the company's Indianapolis plant, filed a complaint with the commission after GM rejected his idea to form an "affinity group" for Christians. GM launched its plan for "affinity groups" in 1999 to promote diversity. Moranski has charged that GM discriminated against him when the company denied his request for recognition of the Christian Employee Network, which he described as an "inter-denominational group." GM...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will rate agencies’ anti-discrimination efforts using a scorecard as part of a broader plan to hold agencies more accountable for discrimination in the federal workplace, EEOC officials announced Tuesday. Specific details of the scorecard have not yet been hammered out, but the EEOC has shared it with a few agencies for feedback, Carlton Hadden, director of EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations, said at the agency’s convention in Atlantic City, N.J. The scores will reflect agencies’ progress in six areas: leadership commitment to diversity; integration of anti-discrimination efforts with overall performance strategies; measurement of...