Posted on 09/14/2010 5:53:28 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
A New Jersey man who burned pages from the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero was fired from his job at NJ Transit, sources and authorities confirmed.
Derek Fenton, an 11-year employee at NJ Transit, was fired Monday, the agency said in a statement, two days after he was photographed burning the Koran.
"Mr. Fenton's public actions violated New Jersey Transit's code of ethics," NJ Transit said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
And in the meantime collecting unemployment.
Certainly a viable option, I am sure.
If you've ever been there you know that that's no great prize.
It’ll be interesting to see if he can get it. They’ll probably try to say he was fired without cause, so he would be eligable. If it’s with cause, you normally can’t get UI benefits.
Not if he can show a Constitutional or statutory violation
Young Derek made the mistake of thinking he lived in a free country.
If that is true you are correct. I thought most city transit workers belonged to a union. So there may be violations of a contract if he was fired without a hearing with a union representative present etc.
Or a bible... Actually, either of those would likely lead to a promotion for a member of a government employee union (an arm of the Democratic party).
Had this man’s name been made public before? I had not seen it. A courageous man, and a courageous Muslim-American lawyer would be wise to take up his cause for a wrongful firing lawsuit.
Any number of Jewish and Christian lawyers would step forward to defend a Muslim harmed by anti-Muslim bigotry on the job, were that Muslim to have gone to a pro-Mosque rally and burnt am American flag and a Bible.
..freedom of expression...surely if progressives can mold a painting out of feces as art...burning an American flag....assimilate the shooting of a sitting President.....
...burning a ever changing Koran,at the whims of whatever Mullah decides what he wants in the Koran AT THE TIME can’t be held up in court....right ACLU?...ACLU?.....*CRICKET CRICKET*
Again, I'm not an employee law expert, but since the employer is the state and not a private company, the employer's situation is a bit more problematic. If he can demonstrate he's being retaliated against for expressing a particular political idea or position, he might have a claim.
I'm hoping someone with some employment law experience from NJ will comment.
I'm also more than a little shock that NJ has any state employees - especially in the transit authority - that are "at will" employees. Very surprising.
"Do you think Derek Fenton deserved to be fired?"
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh man, pardon me. Whew! Hoo, ah ha. I live in New Jersey. Somehow the words ‘’ethics’’ and New Jersey together is too much. NJ Transit is a freakin’ monopoly, service sucks and the fares are constantly going up. (thank the unions) If the guy had burnt a Bible they’d have made him a vice president of operations or something. “Ethics’’. That’s rich.
Good thing he didn’t burn pages from the Bible or copies of Torah .... oh, wait ....
He should say he converted to islam and was protesting the evil in his own religion. That would throw a monkey wrench into things.
Law suit big time.
1A does not just protect popular speech, or speech that is limited to talking about sports teams or whatever.
In particular it is designed to (hopefully) protect dissenting speech against governments and institutions.
Well he could say he was a performance artist. That might get the left in a bit of twist trying to limit that sort of stuff. Usually it’s anything goes for someone calling himself that.
Most employees are “at will”, unless they are lucky enough to have an employment contract (which most don’t).
seriously?
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