Texas – When The Abuser Goes To Work…

No Immunity For Officials Who Retaliated Against Police Capt’s Free Speech

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that a trio of Wood County, TX, officials must answer charges they conspired to retaliate against a police captain because he exercised his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to deny qualified immunity to the defendants, local Judge Jeff Fletcher, Sheriff Tom Castloo and former District Attorney James Wheeler.

Quitman Police Department Captain Terry Bevill has charged the trio with conspiring to have him fired and arrested for agreeing to a lawyer’s request to sign an affidavit for a friend

Bevill signed the affidavit in his personal capacity to support a venue transfer for the criminal trial of former Wood County Jail Administrator David McGee. Bevill said McGee would not get a fair trial in the county for facilitating the escape of an inmate and tampering with government documents because of the close personal relationship between Castloo, Wheeler and Fletcher.

The affidavit described Belvill “[a]s a longtime resident and law enforcement officer” who was “familiar with the local players and political climate.”

Castloo, Wheeler and Fletcher subsequently demanded Quitman Mayor David Dobbs fire Bevill, allegedly threatening to refuse to take future cases and to deny support for the police department. After pressure from Dobbs, Police Chief Kelly Cole fired Belvill on the grounds he violated a policy that bars police from interfering with courts.

Meanwhile, McGee’s case was not transferred and a jury found him guilty.

A Quadrillion, Trillion or Billion To One Long Shot Falls Short

Some novelist somewhere is writing a book about how malevolent forces in a political party used a worldwide pandemic to throw a U.S. Presidential election in four swing states under its control.

When voters caught on, they went to the courts in these four states – lets say, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – and demanded justice. But the courts refused to act. And so did the state legislatures. (Skeptics said it was because they were controlled by the “Winning Party.)

The “Losing Party,” which seemingly was caught unawares, was ostensibly outraged that its Presidential candidate was robbed of a solid victory.

In truth, the leaders didn’t care much for their loud-mouth Presidential candidate. He was an outsider, always making trouble, and his alma mater is second-tier Ivy League. More importantly, the corruption in the four states didn’t affect down ballot voting and the “Losing Party” actually picked up many Congressional seats and grew much stronger. The leaders of the “Losing Party” stayed mostly quiet.

Point of No Return

At the point of no return, the hero of this tale, The Lone Star state of Texas, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. It argued the four rogue states had invalidated the will of voters of the state of Texas and the country as a whole. There was no other forum for redress, Texas argued.

AGs Say PA’s ‘Jurisprudential Misadventure’ Threatens All Voters

Attorneys General in ten GOP states have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court opened the door to election fraud that threatens the “liberty” of all Americans.

They say PA high court’s ‘jurisprudential misadventure” exacerbated the risk of fraud and abuse in mail-in voting in PA by permitting votes to be counted when there was no assurance they were cast by election day.

States outside PA “have a strong interest in preventing the effective invalidation of their own voters’ choices through illegal voting in Pennsylvania,” they argue

The group, led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, asks the Court to reverse the PA high court’s decision allowing mail-in ballots to be counted provided they arrive up to three days after Election Day, including those lacking a postmark to prove they were mailed by Election Day.

Employment Discrimination: What’s with Indiana?

The number of employment discrimination complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission is at an all time high, and its expected to rise.

But there are indications that discrimination is more prevalent in certain states, which apparently have laws and a regulatory schemes that favor business. For example, Texas is an employment-at-will state, which means that employees can be terminated for any reason as long as it doesn’t violate the law (i.e. discrimination) or an important public policy.

Conversely, some high population states appear to have a lower incidence of employment discrimination, possibly indicating a more favorable climate for employer-employee relations.

Businessweek recently did an analysis based on the number of EEOC “merit resolutions” in 2010. These are cases resolved without litigation by the EEOC with private employers and state and local government employers (not federal government). The EEOC filed 250 lawsuits in 2010, resolved 285 lawsuits, and resolved 104,999 private sector charges. Note: The EEOC “prosecutes” only a fraction of the complaints that are filed with the EEOC.

Businessweek’s analysis shows that Texas was the state with the highest number of merit resolutions in 2010. However, this is not particularly surprising given that Texas has the second highest population of any state, after California, which ranked 2nd.

But what’s with Indiana? It’s the 15^th largest state but ranks 5^th state in terms of EEOC merit resolutions. Indiana touts itself as America’s heartland, a family friendly place. Apparently it is even friendlier to business. If you’re looking for a job, you might want to take this into account. And if you have a job in states like Indiana, Alabama or Mississippi, well … good luck!

On the other hand, New York is the 3^rd largest state but ranks 15^th in merit resolutions. Go New York!

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says private sector workplace discrimination charge filings with the federal agency nationwide hit an unprecedented level of 99,922 during the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, 2010. All major categories of charge filings in the private sector (which include charges filed against state and local governments) increased. These include charges alleging discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; the Equal Pay Act; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).

For the first time ever, retaliation under all statutes (36,258) surpassed race (35,890) as the most frequently filed charge, while allegations based on religion (3,790), disability (25,165) and age (23,264) increased.

Here’s the Businessweek ranking of states with EEOC merit resolutions:

1. Texas, 2^nd largest state, population 25,145,561; merit resolutions, 1,780.

2. California, largest state, pop. 37,253,956; merit resolutions, 1,600.

3. Florida, 4^th largest state,pop. 18,801,310; merit resolutions, 1,409.

4. Georgia, 9^th largest state, pop. 9,687,653; merit resolutions, 1,288.

5. Indiana, 15^th largest state, pop. 6,483,802; merit resolutions, 1,063.

6. Illinois, 5^th largest state,pop. 12,830,632; merit resolutions, 1,001.

7. Pennsylvania, 6^th largest state, pop. 12,702,379; merit resolutions, 860,

8. North Carolina, 10^th largest state, pop. 9,535,483; merit resolutions, 823.

9. Tennessee, 17^th largest state, pop. 6,346,105; merit resolutions, 800.

10. Ohio, 7^th largest state, pop. 11,536,504; merit resolutions, 680.

11. Alabama, 23^rd largest state, pop.4,779,736; merit resolutions, 650.

12. New York, 3^rd largest state, pop. 19,378,102′ merit resolutions, 609.

13. Michigan, 8^th largest state, pop. 9,883,640; merit resolutions, 559.

14. Colorado, 22^nd largest state, pop. 5,029,196; merit resolutions, 509.

15. Virginia, 12^th largest state, pop. 8,001,024; merit resolutions, 499.

16. Arizona, 16^th largest state, pop., 6,392,017; merit resolutions, 496.

17. Missouri, 18^th largest state, pop., 5,988,927; merit resolutions, 463.

18. Mississippi, 31^st largest state, pop., 2,967,297; merit resolutions, 392.

19. Arkansas, 32^nd largest state, pop. 2,915,918; merit resolutions, 376.

20. Washington, 13^th largest state, pop. 6,724,540; merit resolutions, 353.