Is a 7 Year Old a Criminal – To Republicans She Is

The Conservative War Against Children in California Suffers a Defeat

The image most Americans have of an illegal immigrant is a man in his mid 20’s, healthy and able to work, but someone who has come to this country illegally to live off the welfare system.  The person does not speak English, may engage in petty or serious crime and is a menace to society.

That description may well fit some illegals, but there is another description that also fits them. 

Ana Gomez, whose parents brought her from Mexico to the United States when she was 7 years old, graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2009

Now The state of California is about to pass its own version of the Dream Act. 



Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

In July, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill

that gave illegal immigrants access

 to privately financed scholarships

and other aid.



the California Legislature is poised to pass a law that would allow illegal immigrants to receive state-financed aid for college. Known as the California Dream Act, the bill underscores the ways states are navigating their own way through controversial immigration issues . . .. While the state law would do nothing to provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, it would provide them with more education benefits than they have in any other state. 

No these benefits are not available to the person described above, they are available to people like Ana Gomez who were brought to this country as children and who have attended high schools in California. 

Of course, to Republicans Ana and her fellow students are criminals.  And the reaction of Republicans is typified by this



You See Accomplished Young People
Republicans See Crimanals



Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Republican who represents San Bernardino, said that he would try to organize a ballot referendum to overturn the legislation.

“The governor is coming to the folks and saying they need to pay more, and then he’s going to turn around and say we still have money to hand over to people who are in the country illegally,” Mr. Donnelly said. “That is absolutely wrong. We are saying to the world: ‘If you haven’t come to California yet illegally, come as soon you can.’ And we’re saying to the people who came legally: ‘You guys are idiots.’ ”

But even some Conservative groups support this sensible and humane policy

though there has been vocal opposition to the bill, it has benefited from widespread support; the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, university presidents and agricultural leaders have all backed the legislation.

Here’s a historical note



Political Irony - He Doesn't Want Benefits
for Immigrant Children



Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation three times while he was in office.

Anyone see any irony here?  Mr. Schwarzenegger of course came to this country legally, and then stayed here to enjoy all the benefits, including a college education at a state supported institution.

  Looking back, maybe allowing him in was not such a good idea.

Here’s a Really Dumb Idea – Let’s Let Cash Strapped States Build a Bunch of Spaceports

Too Late – They Already Did



New Mexico's Spaceport Under Construction

or

What a Wasted $200 million looks like



Did anyone know that a bunch of states have spent hundreds of millions of dollars building spaceports?  These are launching sites for private commercial trips into space.  It turns out that New Mexico is just one of several states that started these projects.





New Mexico's $209 million Spaceport America is at last nearly complete, nine months behind schedule.

The two-mile-long runway for space planes is ready to go. Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the futuristic terminal. But the real challenge is yet to come

And what challenge would that be?  And there is this.

The technological and marketing breakthroughs that were supposed to usher in a dramatic surge in space launches have been slow to materialize

Translation:  There ain’t  no rockets or customers to use the spaceports.

Of course it would be wrong to single out New Mexico

A spaceport in Virginia that once focused almost exclusively on hosting National Aeronautics and Space Administration and military launches is now reaching out to private firms, offering tax breaks and other incentives. Oklahoma is seeking tenants for a former Air Force base it converted into a spaceport. Potential rival projects in Puerto Rico and on the Texas coast are in preliminary discussions with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Foreign nations, too, are racing to get in the game. XCOR Aerospace, a start-up that aims to be the low-fare leader in space tourism, plans to launch its rocket-powered flights from spaceports under development in South Korea and the Caribbean island of Curacao, as well as its home base of Mojave, Calif. New launch sites are also under discussion in Scandinavia and the U.K.

But New Mexico has a customer for its spaceport.

Virgin Galactic has signed a 20-year-lease and is expected to pay at least $5 million a year for the right to use the spaceport's enormous runway to launch tourists on joyrides into weightlessness.



Former NM Gov. Bill Richardson and
Billionaire Richard Branson
Billionaire Gets Government Welfare
 of $200 million



But the payments don't begin until Virgin Galactic is ready for commercial launches of its six-passenger spaceship . . .Mr. Branson originally suggested commercial flights could start in 2008. Then he revised that to 2010. . . . Virgin Galactic, however, no longer makes public predictions about when it will begin transporting passengers to space.



Where it is - right in the heart
of tourist destinations -
In case you want to go



Wow, $5 million a year.  Counting interest that means New Mexico will get its money back in about 60 to 70 years.  And here's a thought.  Mr. Branson is very, very wealthy.  Anybody think to ask him to foot the $200 million bill?  Anyone?

Ok Conservatives, go ahead and criticize, and cut and run on these projects.  You have the full support of The Dismal Political Economist on this one.

Mr. Obama is President of a Country That Does Not Exist, Rick Perry is a Smart Campaigner but May Not be a Smart _______ (fill in the blank yourself) . .

And Quotes in the News That Need Little or No Comment

Writing in the Financial Times renown and respected columnist Martin Wolf says this about Mr. Obama.

Mr Obama wishes to be president of a country that does not exist. In his fantasy US, politicians bury differences in bipartisan harmony. In fact, he faces an opposition that would prefer their country to fail than their president to succeed. 

Thus summarizing in two sentences what may well be the epitaph of the Obama Presidency.

The President had decided he needs to address a joint session of Congress on jobs at the same time that the Republicans will be debating in California.  When asked

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said “of course not” when asked whether White House officials chose the time of Mr. Obama’s speech to interfere with the Republican debate. 

Mr. Carney thus succeeded in making the White House look both “truth challenged” and politically inept all at the same time, not an easy task even for a White House this politically inept.  When asked if he thought the White House had shot themselves in the foot by trying to schedule the Joint Session speech on Wednesday Mr. Carney in a rare momment of truth replied that this White House had previously shot off both feet, and so could no longer claim to be shooting themselves in the foot.

Marc Thiessen, another one of the many Conservatives that now roam the pages of the Washington Post writes this about Texas Gov. and Presidential Candidate Rick Perry.

So the question is: If Rick Perry is so “dumb,” why is he such a smart campaigner?

Are you listening Mr. Romney, really, do you hear this at all?

Gov. Chris Christies of New Jersey is one of those budget hawk politicians who wants the government to spend less and less, except of course when it comes to his state of New Jersey.  Mr. Christie always seems to be first in line for federal money, that is, when he is not denouncing spending.  Now he is angry that budget disputes may hold up Federal aid to New Jersey.



Associated Press

Valerie Meter, 61, right, wiped tears as she walked with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, and her neighbor Steve Verduin on Tuesday. The governor was inspecting damage from river flooding in Wayne, N.J.



Nobody was asking about offsetting budget cuts in Joplin,” Christie said, referring to the tornado-ravaged town in Missouri town, “and I don’t want to hear about the fact that offsetting budget cuts have to come first before New Jersey citizens are taken care of.”

Mr. Christie was no doubt concerned that any delays would prevent him from taking credit for any funding by the Federal government.

Conservative Free Speech Advocates and Texas Sonogram Ruling

Conservative Dilemma:  What to Do When Free Speech Involves Speech They Don’t Agree With

The recent trend in campaign finance law is that the doctrine of free speech trumps restrictions on campaign activities.  The Supreme Court with its Conservative majority has consistently ruled that restrictions on campaign financing is a violation of the Freedom of Speech guaranteed by the Constitution.  They have even gone so far as to invalidate an Arizona law that provided increased public financing for candidates when the self funded competition used unlimited personal wealth to support a campaign.

One vigorous champion of this doctrine has been George Will, a dedicated Conservative opinion writer for the Washington Post and Conservative television star for over 30 years.  No one is more supportive of Free Speech as the argument against any campaign spending reforms than Mr. Will, regardless of how illogical his position is.



Damned Inconvenient at times, Isn't It for Conservatives



So it will be of great interest to The Dismal Political Economist and others to see how Mr. Will and his ilk react to a federal court decision in Texas.  The main issue was whether or not requiring a physician to perform a sonogram on a woman seeking a legal abortion and requiring certain speech by that physician was a likely an unconstitutional violation of free speech.  The decision,

TEXAS MEDICAL PROVIDERS PERFORMING

ABORTION SERVICES, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

-vs-                              Case No. A-11-CA-486-SS

DAVID LAKEY, M.D., et al.,

Defendants.

resulted in a Preliminary Injunction against parts of the the law that compel speech on the grounds the law is unconstitutional with respect to free speech.  Here is the eloquence of the Court.

The net result of these provisions is:

(1) a physician is required to say things and take expressive actions with which the physician may not ideologically agree, and which the physician may feel are medically unnecessary;

(2) the pregnant woman must not only passively receive this potentially unwanted speech and expression, but must also actively participate—in the best case by simply signing an election form, and in the worst case by disclosing in writing extremely personal, medically irrelevant facts; and

(3) the entire experience must be memorialized in records that are, at best, semi-private.

In  the absence of a sufficiently weighty government interest, and a sufficiently narrow statute advancing that interest, neither of which have been argued by Defendants, the Constitution does not permit such compulsion.

Many people thought that the Conservative position was the government should not be involved in health care, and that government control of health care was a bad thing.  Well many people must have been wrong.

So Conservatives in general and Mr. Will in particular who are strongly opposed to abortion and strongly in favor of Constitutional rights have a dilemma.  To be consistent they should support this court decision.  But remember, they are Conservatives.  They only support the principles of the Constitution when it is in favor of their positions.  Why, because they have no principles.  For them the Constitution is only a tool to be used or discarded at will depending upon whether or not they need it for their preconceived positions.

Of course the Supreme Court may decide that compulsion of speech is okay, since they are not all that loyal to the Constitution when it mandates against their personal beliefs.

Goldman Sachs and Good News for the Economy?

Today Don't Look So Good, Tomorrow Neither

A 54 page Goldman Sachs report on the world economic prospects has been given to the Wall Street Journal, and it can be summarized like this.



Cover of the Goldman Report

 



In a 54-page report sent to hundreds of Goldman's institutional clients dated Aug. 16, Alan Brazil—a Goldman strategist who sits on the firm's trading desk—argued that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China's growth may not be sustainable.

Well that ought to cheer up the markets.

New Mexico’s Conservative Governor Realizes Some Hispanics are Not Criminals, Rick Perry Has a Plan to Create Jobs, Mr. Perry Assumes We Know Something We Don't, Ron Paul Gets More than He Deserves,

And Quotes from the News That Need Few Comments

New Mexico elected a Republican Government to replace Democrat Bill Richardson.  The new Governor has decided to undo as much as possible what the previous administration accomplished, and has this attitude about immigration



Not All These People are Criminals, Wow, Who Knew?



“I understand as a Latina not all Hispanic people are criminals,” Ms. Martinez said of the criticism that she is out of touch with the Latino community.

Thus displaying a level of condescension many political figures only dream about.

Now that he is a declared presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry is getting questioned on specifics.  His answer on jobs was that no new stimulus was needed, his policy is this 

“No. 1 is don’t spend all the money, you can figure out what that means,”

Well, actually no Mr. Perry, we have no idea what that means.



One reason why Mr. Paul is not taken seriously
Just one of many



The Washington Post has an Ombudsman, a job that given the paper’s quality would surely take more than one individual.  The current ombudsman has questioned whether or not Presidential candidate Ron Paul has been treated fairly, meaning treated as top tier candidate.

His conclusion? “I think The Post could have done much better on Ron Paul.”

No, Mr. Paul has received little attention because he is a fringe candidate with a small, but vocal group of supporters.  His views are not even close to mainstream Republicans and he has no chance to win the nomination.  That he gets any press attention at all is more than his candidacy deserves.

Now that he has published his book, former Vice President Dick Cheney gets his “puff piece, softball interview” in the Wall Street Journal.  The substance, Mr. Cheney is perfect, everyone else is flawed and wrong. 

"I think we did a pretty good job after 9/11 for those seven and a half years. I think the record reflects that. I think the president gets a lot of credit for that.

Of course Mr. Cheney had to be the one to say that, certainly no one else would have.

There is some dissension in the Federal Reserve System on the need to continue monetary policy to support the economy.  Narayana Kocherlakota, the conservative president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis explained his opposition to more expansionary monetary policy.

He felt the economy had improved in the past year and didn't need additional help

He went on to explain that he was talking about the economy of China, and no, he didn’t realize that the Federal Reserve System was based in the United States.  He is reported to have asked a colleague, “when did that happen and why didn’t somebody tell me?”

Actually with people like this in high positions in the Federal Reserve System, Mr. Paul makes a little more senese.

Finally speaking of Mr. Cheney and his book Dana Millbank writes in the Washington Post about Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whom he says is more like former VP Cheney than former President Bush.  He goes on to say about Mr. Cheney

whose just-published memoir, “In My Time,” might as well have been titled “Right Every Time (Even Though I Was Surrounded by Idiots).”

And then says this.

Think of Perry as Bush without the charm.

Charm???

Those Who Want to Run Government Like a Business – Take a Look at Hewlett Packard

 And then Look Elsewhere - Not Exactly a Role Model Here

Several months ago technology giant Hewlett Packard introduced a product to compete with Apple’s extremely popular and market domineering iPad.  The product, the HP TouchPad promptly bombed, gaining immediate access to the Dumb Business Ideas Hall of Fame.

In order to get rid of the TouchPad inventory HP decided to cut the price from $400.00 to $99.00.  At $99.00 the item became a big seller, so big that HP sold all of the stock of these lemons to people who apparently hope to make some lemonade.  So that was a fitting end to the saga, and a somewhat successful end in that HP did get some money from its inventory.

Well the sale program was such a success that now HP has decided to start making some more units. 

"We don't know exactly when these units will be available or how many we'll get," H-P spokesman Mark Budgell wrote on a company blog. "We can't promise we'll have enough for everyone." The company said it is pleased by the response it has gotten so far.

So what’s the problem?  Well there is this

The decision to manufacture a second run, however, left analysts scratching their heads. The introductory model of the TouchPad costs $306 to manufacture, according to an estimate from research firm IHS iSuppli, suggesting a loss of roughly two-thirds if it is sold for $99.


 

Note to HP Executives: The statement “we’re losing money on every unit, but plan to make it up on volume” is an old business joke.  Get that, a joke.  It is not a policy prescription. You need to know that.

Elizabeth Warren Continues Planning to Take on Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts

She is Following the Political Playbook

Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard Professor who was catapulted to fame recently for her work in designing the agency that would protect consumers from unscrupulous practices by banks and other financial institutions.  Since protection of consumers is a horrific idea to Conservatives, they vowed to block her confirmation as head of that agency and run her out of Washington.  This has been done.

 

Now Ms. Warren is considering running for the Senate seat of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts.  Mr. Brown was elected to fill the remaining term of the late Senator Edward Kennedy.  Mr. Brown won in large part because the Democratic nominee took the position that the seat would automatically go to her, and voters hate that so much that they will even vote Republican in a state like Massachusetts to punish such behavior. 

Mr. Brown has raised a huge amount of money and is favored for re-election.

To enter a political race one follows certain rules.  The first thing one does is to go on a “listening tour” which Ms. Warren has done.  The second thing is to sit down with a sympathetic reporter and do an interview which is favorable to the candidate.  This Ms. Warren has just done, with Brian McGory of the Boston Globe.  Here are some Mr. McGory’s comments on the interview.

Assuming Warren follows through on her not-quite-set plan to seek the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, Massachusetts has never seen a candidate quite like her. . .

She talks from her gut as well as her sizable brain. She bothers not with polls and focus groups. She far prefers to fight for what she believes in rather than compromise it all away. . .

She’s your typical Oklahoma-born daughter of a carpet salesman and Sears worker who went on to become a state debating champion, attended public college, got married young, had kids early, graduated from law school while taking care of a toddler, earned a teaching position at Harvard Law School, and finally headed to Washington as the plainspoken voice of people getting crushed by so many predatory lenders and underregulated banks . . .

She does this other thing that sets her apart from most politicians: When she is asked a question, any question, she looks the person in the eye and answers it.



He Do It Again and The Democrats Are in Serious Trouble



So there you have it, the first salvo in a potential campaign.  If she runs Ms. Warren’s campaign may be the most significant of all of the senate campaigns in 2012.  If a candidate like Ms. Warren cannot win in a Democratic state like Massachusetts then the future of the Democratic party is dire indeed.  

And guess what, she won't be the favorite.

Mitt Romney Campaigns as the Candidate of Doom and Gloom

His Plan to End Doom and Gloom: Elect Mitt Romney, Install Voodoo Economics

Perennial Presidential Candidate and Former GOP Frontrunner Mitt Romney will be campaigning against President Obama in the coming weeks, at least until he realizes he is in second place and needs to be campaigning against Rick Perry. The most interesting facet of GOP Presidential politics is wondering when or even if that will happen.  Mr. Romney and his team may think that winning the New Hampshire primary is tantamount to winning the nomination.  If so, they are in for a surprise.

 The New York Times reports on Mr. Romney’s campaign themes.  Mr. Romney

“warned on Tuesday that America was on the brink of “profound economic misery,” the latest effort by the Republican presidential candidate to paint an unrelentingly grim picture of the country under President Obama’s leadership.”

Now sooner or later Mr. Romney will be asked his prescription for curing things.  Well first of all is military spending.

“he criticized the administration’s proposal to cut military spending.” 

which is always a crowd pleasing Republican line.  And we know that when Mr. Romney unveils his job creation policy it will be “cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes”.  And of course Mr. Romney supports balancing the budget.

So in the end Mr. Romney’s program can be summed up as “increase the defense budget, cut taxes on the wealthy and balance the budget”, which is exactly the message of Ronald Reagan in 1980. 

One can almost hear George H. W. Bush bursting forth with the term “voodoo economics redux”.  Yep, voodoo is powerful stuff, it entrances those who practice it, particularly with economic policy.

Fresno Ca. School Superintendent Quits Job Because He is Paid Too Much

He Is Not Unemployed, He was Rehired at 12% of His Old Salary

The Superintendent of the Fresno County school system makes, or rather was making about $288,000 a year.  Larry Powell decided that he has been paid enough in life and so he did the following.



Mr. Powell Will Use the Savings to
Fund His Favorite Education Projects



He technically retired, then agreed to be hired back to work for $31,000 a year — $10,000 less than a first-year teacher — and with no benefits.



Mr. Powell will give up over $800,000 in compensation before his term expires in 2015. 

“Our goal has never been to have things,” Powell said of himself and his wife, Dot. “We want to give back.”

Mr. Powell explained the rationale for his decision this way.


“These are tight budget times in California for public schools,” the 63-year-old Fresno County school superintendent said, noting over the past three years, his area has lost $1,600 to $1,900 in funding per student. “My wife and I thought, what can we do that might help change the dynamic in my particular area.”

As for what is to be done with the savings.

Because his salary comes out of the district’s discretionary budget, Powell will be able “to steer the money he is giving up where he wants: to programs for kindergarten and preschool, the arts and a pet project that steers B and C students into college by teaching them how to take notes and develop strategy skills.” As ABC’s David Wright notes, Powell’s $830,000 is enough to hire 20 new teachers, fund 16 pre-school classes, or pay for 11 art programs for the entire year.

Nicely done Mr. and Mrs. Powell.

What Recession? – Corporate Profits Have Had Big Growth

So Why Aren’t They Hiring – Mr. Keynes Knows (And He Has Been Dead for over 50 Years)

Why is corporate America so glum?  It’s not because profits haven’t risen. 

Corporate profits rose an estimated 3% in the second quarter from the first, better than the 1% improvement in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Friday. Profits were up more than 8% from last year's second quarter. The domestic nonfinancial sector drove most of the growth, as financial profits declined.

So what is the problem?

The problem is the way in which corporate profits have risen.  Once the recession hit business found itself under heavy pressure to cut costs, which it did.  Primarily it cut costs by reduced labor costs, eliminating millions of jobs.  This process is not unusual, in good times businesses are lax about controls, and it takes a downturn to create pressure to improve productivity and reduce costs.

The problem is that in increasing productivity and profits by reducing costs, particularly labor costs, companies have sowed the seeds of future problems because the cost cutting thing is a one time event.  And once a company has gone through that process its profits can only increase with increased sales and revenues.

Among the potential land mines ahead: slowing global growth, a worrisome fiscal picture as Washington battles over the debt and plunging sentiment among U.S. consumers and businesses, raising risks of a pullback in spending.

See in the aggregate this "cost cutting/reduced employment" process is self defeating.  Loss of jobs means loss of income which means lower spending which means lower demand for the goods and services that corporations make.  So while the recent past has been good for profits, the future depends upon economic growth, which is not forthcoming.

"The biggest problem is that their order books are thin," said Macroeconomic Advisers chairman Joel Prakken. "They need fat order books to add people. They need fat order books to buy machines."

If consumers are not spending, government must spend to stimulate the economy.  Mr. Keynes explained all of this over 70 years ago.  But that’s not going to happen, is it. 

 

Mr. Obama will unveil a “jobs program” soon. It may contain a useless reduction in the payroll tax paid by employers and a "jobs tax credit to encourage them to hire workers they don’t need and won’t hire because they don’t need them, regardless of how low the employer share of the payroll tax is or what kind of tax credit they get. 

 But unless the jobs program includes a large increase in targeted federal spending, it will be largely ineffective.  And if it does include a large increase in targeted federal spending it will be impossible to enact into law.

This is why The Dismal Political Economist is called “Dismal” for short by his friends.

Astronauts May Have to Abandon Space Station

And Exactly How Does That Affect Anyone Here on Earth?

Orbiting in space is a manned space station, which The New York Times reports has cost about $100 billion, although that is probably an estimate that could be off by a billion or two, but with the space program a billion or two just doesn’t matter very much.

Now it turns out the space station may have to be abandoned.



A lot more fun for a lot
less money



Last Wednesday, an unmanned Russian cargo ship known as the Progress, which was carrying three tons of supplies to the space station, crashed in Siberia. Telemetry from the rocket indicated that a drop of fuel pressure led its computer to shut down the third-stage engine prematurely about five and a half minutes into flight.

The Soyuz rocket that lifts the Progress is similar to the Soyuz rocket that takes astronauts to the station, and officials want to make sure they understand what failed on last week’s launching and are confident it will not occur again.

So the astronauts need to come down, if for no other reason that one of them may be running out of clothes

The loss of the Progress is of little immediate impact. One of the Russian astronauts is running short of clothes and might have to borrow some from NASA, Mr. Suffredini said.

Not to worry, though the space station will be fine without astronauts, and maybe just maybe everyone will realize that we can get along with it.  And the best news of all

Not to worry, he won't let Dr. Evil get
the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

Some experiments like the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a large particle physics experiment installed last year, would continue operating without human oversight

So even though the space station may be unmanned we can still get the results of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. That will probably mean millions of jobs, a balancing of the Federal budget, elimination of most infectous diseases and happiness for all.

 But now that it will be unguarded  we have a new worry.  Isn’t that the thing Dr. Evil was after?

Conservatives Lose a Freedom of Religion Case Against a Teacher on Creationism

Wow, 9^th Circuit Ruling May Give Teachers Some of the Same Rights as Corporations

Conservatives have long argued the “free speech issue” and “freedom of religion” issue to get favorable rulings on things they want, like government support of religion in school and financial support of religious schools..  In fact, Conservatives seem to adore free speech and freedom of religion, except for those occasions when people want to do what Conservatives don't want, like wanting to build a mosque.

In the case in California iswhere a high school student wanted to sue a teacher for violating his rights in an Advanced Placement History course for making disparaging remarks about religion.  The case was recently decided by a panel of judges in the federal appeals court.

_____________________________________________

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

C.F., by and through his parents ü

TERESA FARNAN and BILL FARNAN,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

CAPISTRANO UNIFIED SCHOOL

DISTRICT; DR. JAMES CORBETT, No. 09-56689

individually and in his official capacity as an employee of ý D.C. No. Capistrano Unified School District, 8:07-cv-01434-

Defendants-Appellees, JVS-AN

and

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS

ASSOCIATION/NEA; CAPISTRANO

UNIFIED EDUCATION ASSOCIATION,

Intervenors-Appellees. þ

_______________________________________________

 The issue was whether or not the teacher could be sued for remarks that the teacher made that the student found offensive.

Now an interesting thing one finds upon reading the decision is that indeed the remarks of the teacher were offensive.  Whether or not they were meant to be provocative to stimulate discussion or were just plain opinionated is not known, but they were definitely offensive.  So plaintiff Farnan wanted to sue saying the offensive remarks violated the Consitution's prohibition of establishment of religion.

Based on these statements and others discussed in the district

court order, see Farnan I, 615 F. Supp. 2d at 1142-53,

Farnan filed suit under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 alleging

that Corbett and the District violated the Establishment

Clause.

So the issue was whether or not a teacher making disparaging remarks about religion  was in violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.  The Court reaffirmed the principle here,

statements exhibiting some hostility to religion

do not violate the Establishment Clause if the government

conduct at issue has a secular purpose, does not have as its

principal or primary effect inhibiting religion and does not

foster excessive government entanglement with religion

In the end, the Court concluded that the teacher was entitled to “qualified immunity” because there was no precedent that could be invoked against his teachings.  The Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the teacher’s statements, but clearly thought they were protected and did not “establish religion”. 

The best conclusion is from a conservative group

In other words, the fact that something that’s said in a classroom challenges your beliefs doesn’t mean you have a right not to hear

Reading the case a reasonable person, i.e., The Dismal Political Economist, would conclude that the teacher probably should not have been as inflammatory as he was.  But freedom of religion and free speech are not always pretty, see a Karl Rove produced political commercial for example, as ugly a vision of free speech that you will find, and all sanctioned by the Supreme Court.