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Edited ACLU News
From: IN%"[email protected]" 30-MAY-1996 01:11:39.86
From: Phil Agre <[email protected]>
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>Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 11:57:30 GMT
>From: ACLU Newsfeed Owner <[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
[...]
> *Ban on "Offensive" Comments Ruled Vague*
>SAN FRANCISCO -- A state law against "offensive" personal comments by lawyers
>was ruled unconstitutionally vague Friday for the second time, despite the
>State Bar's attempt to define it, the Associated Press reports.
>The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals first struck the law down in April
>1995, overturning a disciplinary order against a Los Angeles attorney who
>denounced women lawyers, the AP reported. In a 3-0 ruling, the court said the
>law was so broad and undefined that lawyers wouldn't know when they were
>violating it.
>The panel granted a rehearing last December to give the state and the State
>Bar, not previously parties, a chance to defend the law.
>The bar cited its new policy, adopted in October, that said the law would be
>enforced only against conduct in a courtroom or similar setting, such as a
>sworn deposition, that was so serious as to be "prejudicial to the
>administration of justice." They also said the law merely enforced an ethical
>code that lawyers were required to know as part of their profession.
>The court was unpersuaded, AP said, reaffirming its previous decision in a
>2-1 ruling.
>The case involved a disciplinary order against attorney Frank L. Swan, who
>wrote an angry note in May 1993 to a female prosecutor who had gotten him
>removed from a case. He attached the following statement to the note,
>photocopied from a magazine article:
>"Male lawyers play by the rules, discover truth and restore order. Female
>lawyers are outside the law, cloud truth and destroy order."
>In overturning the disciplinary order, the appeals court said the note showed
>a "patently sexist attitude'' but did not impugn the female prosecutor's
>integrity or interfere with the administration of justice.
>The American Civil Liberties Union defended Swan. The National Organization
>for Women was among those opposing him.
One notices that the court did not strike this down on the obvious
grounds of free speech. I believe this may be an example of a law, not
struck down on such grounds, that fits TCMay's description that Rich
disputed.
>----------------------------------------------------------------
> *Clinton Expands National ID*
>Seeking to further demonstrate its tough stance against illegal immigration,
>the Clinton Administration announced Thursday a national expansion of a pilot
>program in California that requires participating employers to verify the
>legal status of job seekers, according to a front page article in the New
>York Times.
>Specifically, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reached agreement
>with the nation's four largest meat-packing companies (representing 80
>percent of the industry's 70,000 employees) to use a computerized data system
>at 41 plants in 12 Western and Midwestern states to determine if job
>applicants are documented workers.
>The ACLU and other civil libertarians have long criticized the plan, saying
>it would lead to an costly, intrusive and error-prone national identification
>card.
>The effort announced today builds on the seven-month-old pilot program in two
>Southern California counties, Santa Ana and the City of Industry.
>Meanwhile, immigration bills approved by the House and the Senate, and now
>awaiting resolution in a conference committee, include differing provisions
>that would expand pilot programs even further to allow the INS to more
>quickly evaluate among different systems.
>"These pilot programs all lead down the same path," said Greg T. Nojeim, an
>ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Unless the public steps up its pressure to stop
>them from proceeding, the government will build a giant computer registry
>that will require every single hiring decision in this country to be cleared
>through a centralized database."