Free Republic

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision. Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber. The announcement was expected to come Monday, and an adviser to the governor, Anthony York,...

Earlier this year, the Catholic Diocese of Richmond fired the executive director of an associated charity known as the Saint Francis Home after the man disclosed he was in a same-sex marriage. The executive director subsequently filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming sexual orientation discrimination. While such EEOC complaints (and federal lawsuits) have been filed before, only this past summer did the EEOC rule in Baldwin v. Foxx that sexual orientation discrimination could constitute sex discrimination which is prohibited by Title VII. Despite its jumbled logic, this ruling increases the likelihood that the executive directorÂ’s claim...

America’s Declaration of Independence enshrines the idea that all men are created equal. What it actually means is that everyone has the same rights to enjoy or suffer the consequences of their own decisions under the law, and to freely exist in whatever circumstances earned, given, or legally bequeathed to them. When debating topics like affirmative action, and the more in-vogue topic of “income inequality,” fair-minded and conscientious conservatives are always quick to add the caveat that while they are against socially-engineered mandates to force uniform equality of outcomes, they nonetheless will nobly fight for the supposed equal opportunity of...

The Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in a case brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas. The court said Tuesday it will return to the issue of affirmative action in higher education for the first time since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor in admissions. This time around, a more conservative court is being asked to outlaw the use of Texas' affirmative action plan and possibly to jettison the earlier ruling entirely. A broad ruling in favor...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-100621.html Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Department of Justice’s 2010 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month Program Washington, D.C. ~ Monday, June 21, 2010 Good morning. Thank you, Chris [Hook], for your kind words and for all the work that you, Marc [Salans], the Board of DOJ Pride and our EEO staff team have done in organizing today’s ceremony. It’s a pleasure to join Tom [Perez] in welcoming so many members of the Justice Department family, and so many distinguished guests, here today as we commemorate LGBT Pride Month. I’m...

Racial-Preference Ballots Go National Initiatives in four states could shape the presidential election. 16 April 2008 With race looming as a key issue in the fall elections—perhaps a pivotal one, assuming that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee—diehard defenders of the racial status quo are going to unprecedented lengths to prevent voters from having their say on government-sponsored racial preferences. Leftist activists are lining up to fight four state ballot initiatives that, if passed on November 4, will outlaw preferential treatment based on race, gender, and national origin in public university admissions as well as government hiring and contracting. Knowing...

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...

LANCASTER - A veteran English teacher and former English Department chairman contends he is a victim of discrimination at Antelope Valley High School. As a white male, Charles E. "Chuck" Slay says, he has been passed over by Principal Karen Patterson, an African-American woman, for projects and choice assignments. Slay recently filed a lengthy official complaint against Patterson, who been principal of the school for the past two years. Numerous attempts over several days to contact Patterson by telephone were unsuccessful. A secretary for Patterson said the principal would be unavailable. District officials were unable to confirm or deny an...

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Some people visit Austin for the sights. The Rev. Jesse Jackson came for the audiences. The official purpose of Jackson's two-day swing through Austin is a speech today to the Texas Association of African American Chambers of Commerce convention. But tell that to his scheduler. Thursday's agenda of public events included two high school speeches and a news conference. Today's schedule runs 14 hours. Jackson plans to cram in a breakfast and high school speech in Georgetown, a Police Department facility tour and a speech at Huston-Tillotson College tonight. And that is just the public agenda. It does...