The following are a collection of news articles relating to gender issues gathered by students during the Spring 2021 semester:
March 2021
“Press Secretary Smites Host That Dissed Diversity in U.S. Military”
The United States military is the greatest the world has ever seen because of its diversity, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said during a news briefing this morning.Kirby addressed this because a cable show host used his show to denigrate the contributions of women in the military and to say the Chinese military is catching up to the U.S. military because it does not allow women to serve in the percentage the United States does.
“White College Staffer RESIGNS Over Anti-White Racism, Files EEOC Complaint”
A white former Smith College employee has filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC (Massachusetts) alleging a “racially hostile work environment”. Here is the video from Tim Pool that gives the background to this case from her point of view:
The complaint can be viewed from her personal website below:Documents – Jodi Shaw
April 2021
“Justice Clarence Thomas on Tech Giants Limiting Speech on Their Platforms“
“Today’s digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech by government actors. Also unprecedented, however, is control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties,”
“We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.”
“Threats directed at digital platforms can be especially problematic in the light of 47 U.S.C. §230, which some courts have misconstrued to give digital platforms immunity for bad-faith removal of third-party content,”
“This immunity eliminates the biggest deterrent – a private lawsuit – against caving to an unconstitutional government threat.”
“For similar reasons, some commentators have suggested that immunity provisions like §230 could potentially violate the First Amendment to the extent those provisions preempt state laws that protect free speech from private censorship.”
“Supreme Court sides with undocumented immigrant fighting deportation”
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant seeking to challenge his removal from the U.S. by immigration authorities.
In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court said the Justice Department was violating federal law by not providing immigrants it seeks to deport with a single, comprehensive “notice to appear” with details on the charges and scheduled court appearance.
“A cheerleader’s Snapchat rant leads to ‘momentous’ Supreme Court case on student speech”
The supreme court will hear one of the most important cases relating to student free speech in the last half century. At age 14 Brandi Levy posted “F- school F- cheerleading… F- everything” on snapchat after not making her school’s varsity cheer team. The innocently posted snapchat circulated to the daughters of one of the coaches, and then the coach themselves, which they realized violated the teams online behavior policy. Levy was then removed from the team for a year, and this decision was maintained even after her parents appealed to the team, the principal, and the school board. Her case was then picked up by the ACLU and will now be heard before the supreme court. This case is incredibly interesting to me as I truly believe this could have been anyone. Our friends post messages about their frustration with school all the time, and now we will see the outcome of this case, and how it will affect student speech going forward!
“Democrats to introduce bill to expand Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices”
Congressional Democrats will introduce legislation Thursday to expand the Supreme Court from nine to 13 justices, joining progressive activists pushing to transform the court.
The move intensifies a high-stakes ideological fight over the future of the court after President Donald Trump and Republicans appointed three conservative justices in four years, including one who was confirmed days before the 2020 election.
“House Democrats Pass Bill To Make D.C. The 51st State”
Since D.C. residents are taxed without representation and many other issues, the push for D.C. to become a state has resurfaced in Congress.The U.S. House of Representatives has once again voted on a bill to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., and enfranchise more than 712,000 Americans, a cause that enjoys unprecedented support but still faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate. Below is a link to the website that tells more information on this bill.
“Census: New York to lose 1 House seat”
The state of New York lost a seat in the House of Representatives after coming up just 89 people short on the census. This margin is so small that it leads me to believe that if we had just spent more time, money, and effort in securing responses in the 2020 census, we would have been able to retain and maybe even have gained a seat. Because, the census only happens once every ten years, the ramifications of this lost seat will be seen as the redistricting process goes underway.
“That’s a razor thin margin and that makes a huge difference in terms of not only New York’s politics, but can also impact federal aid to the state,” said Blair Horner of New York Public Interest Research Group.