Supreme Court rules in favor of Big Business.

               A sharply divided Supreme Court made it more difficult for Americans to sue businesses for discrimination and retaliation. It led to one of of the Judges to call on Congress to overturn the courts action. The High Court ruled 5-4 in 2 major decisions.

                  The Court’s Conservatives ruled that a person must be able to hire and fire someone to be considered a supervisor in discrimination lawsuits. This makes it harder to blame a business for a coworkers’ sexism or racism. The Court then decided to limit how juries can decide retaliation lawsuits. It says victims must prove employers wouldn’t havectaken action against them but for the intention to retaliate.

In the first case, Maetta Vance, who was a catering specialist at Ball State University, accused a co-worker, Shaundra Davis, of racial harrassment and retaliation in 2005. Vance sued the school under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vance said the University was liable since Davis was her supervisor. But a Federal Judge threw out her lawsuit, saying that since Davis couldn’t fire Vance, she was only a co-worker and since the University had taken corrective action, it was not liable fir Davis’ actions. The 7th Circuit upheld that decision and Vance appealed to the Supreme Court.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote both dissents for the Court’s Liberal wing. She said aloud in Court, “Both decisions dilute the strength of of Title VII in ways Congress could not have intended.” She also said the Supreme Court had corralled Title VII, a law designed to stop discrimination in work places.

But Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, said Davis must have the authority to hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer or discipline Vance, in order for the University to be liable. He also said “We hold that an employee is a supervisor for purposed vicarious liability under Title VII if he or she were empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions against the victim. Becausr there is no evidence BSU empowered Davis to take tangible employment actions against Vance, the judgement of the Seventh Circuit is affirmed.”

The Conservative portion of the Supreme Court usually rules in favor of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Republican lobbying group. These are obviously decisions that benefit big bussiness. Of course it is at the expense of the worker. Gutting Title VII removes most, if not all responsibility to protect their employees. Obviously it is up to Democrats to fix this, because Republicans and their corporate sponsors got a win. The people lost again.

              

Chineese military and Republican party found using same spying tactics on Liberal organizations and Unions.

                In February a firm called Mandiant and the New York Times revealed that the Chineese military is engaging in a sophisticated campaign of internet spying and cyber attacks targeting U.S. Corporations and government websites caused widespread alarm. What hasn’t been noticed is the Chineese plot has a lot in common with a Republican conspiracy to spy and sabotage Liberal advocacy groups and Unions. A plot developed on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2010.

Mandiant identified the plot by looking through a database of hacking tools. The tools were managed by the same individuals associated with the American firm that had been enlisted to help the Chamber of Commerce execute its spying and hacking plan. That was before it was exposed by the hacking group Anonymous.

Attorney’s for the Chamber were caught negotiating a contract to launch a cyber campaign using similar methods as the Chineese. These could reportedly be used to cripple vital infrastructure and steal trade secrets from Fortune 100 companies. The Chamber was seeking to undermine its political opposition, including the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and MoveOn.org. Anonymous again revealed the plan.

Un January 2011 the Chamber recieved a CD with target data. The targets discussed were Labor Unions, SEIU, IBT, UFW, UFCW, AFL-CIO, Change to Win, as well as Progressive organizations like the Center for American Progress, MoveOn.org, Courage Campaign, the Ruckus Society, Agit-Pop, Brave New Films and others. The tactics described in the proposals are illegal. There were no discussions in the leaked emails about the legality of using such tactics. The Chambers lawyers and the contractors quibbled for weeks about the appropriate compensation for these hacking services. At one point, $2 million was demanded.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a powerful business lobbying group that had become a fully functional part of the Republican machine. Republicans condemned President Obama and the NSA for the surveillance of phone and internet activity but hypocritically do it to those who disagree with them. At least the NSA and the Obama administration are doing it in the name of National Security. Republicans condemned the IRS and the Obama administration for targeting Tea Party groups, which Mitch Mcconnell said President Obama was not involved with. Yet hypocrite Republicans do the same type of subterfuge to undermine Democrat leaning adversaries. Republicans are caught in this, yet the conservative media does not report it. I guess that is what happens when you own most of the media.