Media Bites – AT&T Front Group ad
This week’s Media Bites takes a look at a new ad campaign by the Front Group, Americans for Prosperity. The ad claims that the federal government wants to take over the Internet, but what they don’t tell you is that one of the largest Internet service providers – AT&T – is the entity that is funding the ad campaign.
Yesterday, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Crain’s Detroit Business hosted a forum at the downtown campus of GVSU on the importance of downsizing and consolidating local government.
The event was titled “Better, Faster, Cheaper: The Business Case for Rebuilding Local Government,” and featured Stephen Goldsmith, a former Mayor of Indianapolis and in 2000 he was the chief domestic policy advisor to the George W. Bush campaign.
Goldsmith began his presentation by saying that government can’t solve complex horizontal problems with vertical solutions. This is an interesting observation, especially since he advocated for a more business/privatized approach for government. However, don’t corporations and private entities use a top down (vertical) approach to solving problems? At least with governments you have the capacity to vote people out of office, but you can’t vote for a change in corporations.
The keynote speaker went on to say that “government is being changed from direct service provider to generator of public value. We need government that does less and does more through third party entities.” Goldsmith was advocating for more public/private partnerships, but he also believes it is necessary to promote privatization of government services and more deregulation.
The speaker shared a few stories from when he was governor of Indianapolis that emphasized how to put his theories into practice. One story was about how a union representative for the city sanitation workers came to Goldsmith and said that they would freeze their wages and make concessions in work rules if the Mayor would agree to not privatize their jobs. Goldsmith agreed and the sanitation workers even came up with better ideas on how to function.
What Goldsmith didn’t say was that this is the situation that most unionized workers find themselves in, so one of the few options they have is take a pay cut or to give up some workplace power just in order to save their jobs. This tactic by unions is not terribly effective and does not always work, since businesses and governments will often choose to either move else where, or in the case of government/public entities – privatize public services.
As I listened to Goldsmith it reminded me of the same kind of language that neo-liberal international policy makers use when talking about ways to “improve” the economies of poorer nations. One of the main tools that these policy makers use are structural adjustment programs (SAPs), a policy advocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
SAPs call for downsizing government, eliminating public services, the privatization of public services and better tax incentives for foreign investors. Although historically, these policy have been imposed on other countries they are now being promoted domestically. Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, demonstrates how these same structural adjustment programs are being adopted in the US with the example of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
However, Goldsmith’s presentation was exactly what the crowd wanted to hear and it fits nicely into the goals of the West Michigan Regional Policy Conference objectives – downsize government, privatize public services, more public/private partnerships, eliminate business taxes and make Michigan a “right to work state.”
The Press Acts as Stenographer
The only news agency that was present was Grand Rapids Press reporter Jim Harger. Harger recounts the comments from Goldsmith and others in attendance, but doesn’t question or verify the claims being made by any of the speakers. In many ways the Press article accepts the position that governments are resistant to change and are burdened by bureaucracy.
While there may be problems with local governments to not seek out dissenting perspectives or to verify the claims of the main speaker does a disservice to the public. Imagine if a conference organized by unions was held that was advocating greater restrictions on corporations. Do you think that the Press would have sought out the perspective of companies to “balance” such a story?
OKT members recently visited Brother Nature's urban garden, which grows on cleared abandoned residential lots in Detroit. The garden provides fresh produce to restaurants, farmers markets and, of course, neighbors, who are welcome to come pick whatever they need.
Steps to Growing Healthy Urban Gardens
6 – 9 p.m. Tues. May 25
SECA, 1408 Madison SE
Our Kitchen Table is a (OKT) launches its Food Diversity Project Series with free gardening workshop, “Steps to Growing Healthy Urban Food Gardens,” on Tuesday May 25 from 6 to 9 p.m. The workshop will be held at Southeast Community Association (SECA) 1408 Madison Ave. SE in Grand Rapids.
A non-profit, grassroots community activist organization, OKT works for environmental justice and food security in Grand Rapids area urban communities.
Clinton Boyd PhD., Senior Scientist with the Sustainable Research Group, will share how to pick a spot, collect soil samples for testing (at a laboratory or with a DIY kit) and other tips for successful urban food gardening. “This workshop is designed for new gardeners, container gardeners and any gardener’s looking for their “green thumb,” says Lisa Oliver-King of Our Kitchen Table.
During the workshops, participants can sign up to join OKT’s Food Buying Club, which places orders for with Country Life Natural Foods in Pullman, Michigan. They can also sign up to be part of OKT’s seed bank, where members share heirloom seeds gathered from their own gardens.
OKT will also collect used household batteries and CFL light bulbs for recycling, exchange mercury thermometers for free digital thermometers and sign people up for free recycle bins. “Dress for the weather and bring a water bottle,” King advises. “This is a hands-on workshop and you will be connecting with the soil.”
The workshop is free and open to children age 10 and over accompanied by their parents. OKT asks that those interested in attending preregister. For information and registration, contact Lisa O-K, lisask1@aol.com or 616-719-9779.
CMS Energy director faces removal campaign at Massey
(This article by Eartha Jane Melzer is re-posted from Michigan Messenger.)
Shareholders of the Massey Energy Company are warning that safety oversight failures at the company have cost investors dearly and they are recommending that three directors who served on the board’s safety committee be removed during the company’s annual shareholders meeting next week.
One of the members they are campaigning against is Richard Gabrys, who is also on the board of directors of Jackson, Michigan-based CMS Energy.
A group of nine public institutions that collectively own $64 million in Massey stock point out that in the years leading up to the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, which killed 29 workers and sent stock prices plummeting, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration issued “significant and substantial” violations on that mine at a rate that was 19 times the national average, yet Massey’s safety committee failed to take corrective action.
Those nine public investors are the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Office of Connecticut State Treasurer, Illinois State Board of Investment, Maryland State Pension and Retirement System, New York State Common Retirement Fund, New York City Employees’ Retirement System, North Carolina Dept. of the State Treasurer, Oregon State Treasury, and the Pennsylvania Treasury.
Rather than take action on safety warning from regulators, the investors say, Massey’s safety committee “tried to deflect criticism of it’s safety problems by emphasizing less relevant measures such as “Non-Fatal Days Lost.”’
The groups note that Risk Metrics and Glass Lewis — major proxy advisors — have both recommended votes against Gabyrs and his colleagues Dan Moore and Baxter Phillips, Jr., all of whom are up for reelection, citing the company’s record of safety violations, the Board’s failure to adequately oversee management, and poor corporate governance practices.
“In evaluating a director’s qualifications, the best way to determine whether or not a director is truly representing shareholders is to look at what they are doing in their role in committee,” said Mike Garland of the CtW Investment group which manages funds for the institutions. “It is our view the Richard Gabrys has failed in this role and bears responsibility for all of those failures. He sat on the safety committee, and this is a company with an abysmal safety record.”
Massey has appointed Gabyrs to review the company’s safety related actions/failures and the related FBI investigation, even though he sat on the safety committee that was responsible for those actions. The CtW Investment group says that this is an obvious conflict and shows ongoing bad judgment by the board and Gabrys.
The fact that Gabrys also directs one of Michigan’s biggest energy companies has raised some concerns here.
CMS has it’s own history of problems with environmental violations, and in a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the company acknowledged that these violations are a liability that could cost shareholders and/or ratepayers.
In the past few years EPA has issued numerous Notices of Violation for environmental problems at the company’s coal burning power plants in Jackson, Muskegon, West Olive and Essexville.
In March 2007 EPA cited the company for violating the Clean Air Act by releasing more than the legal amount of soot from 14 of the company’s boilers for a total of 37 days between 2004-2005.
It noted, “The purpose of this visible emission limit is to help protect the public from unhealthy exposures to particulate. Particulate emissions, especially fine particulate, contribute to respiratory problems, lung damage and premature deaths.”
In October 2008 EPA issued violations to the company for violating the Clean Air Act by carrying out 10 projects at the J.H. Campbell Plant in West Olive; the B.C. Cobb Plant in Muskegon; and the D.E. Karn and J.C. Weadock Plants in Essexville without regard for the law that required them to install technology to reduce emissions (NOx and/or SO2) which cause ozone formation and acid rain.
These violations remain unresolved. In a March filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the company wrote,
“Consumers is engaged in discussions with EPA about all of these matters. Depending on the outcome of these discussions, the EPA could bring legal action against Consumers and/or Consumers could be required to install additional pollution control equipment at some or all of its coal-fueled electric generating plants, surrender emission allowances, engage in Supplemental Environmental Programs, and/or pay fines.”
Those fines could be so substantial, the filing said, that the company “would need to assess the viability of continuing operations at certain plants” and that it “cannot predict the financial impact or outcome of these matters.”
The environmental violations cited by EPA show that Consumers Energy has long operated its coal-fired power plans without installing the modern pollution controls that are required by law in order to protect human health, Shannon Fisk, attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said via e-mail, “It is far beyond time for Consumers to retire or clean up its outdated coal plants and aggressively invest in energy efficiency and cleaner energy sources that will create jobs in Michigan and protect public health.”
David Holtz of Progress Michigan expressed concern that Richard Gabrys, given his history with Massey Energy, may not be prepared to help CMS comply with environmental laws.
“Massey’s history of safety violations and now the deaths of so many miners happened under Gabrys’ watch as member of the board’s safety committee. That raises serious questions about his qualifications and judgment as a director of CMS Energy,” Holtz said.
“Gabrys’ questionable track record at this giant coal company should have shareholders at CMS Energy asking if the continued presence of Gabrys on their board is in the interests of shareholders and ratepayers or if he’s just part of an gentleman’s club of wealthy coal barons whose real interest is promoting dirty, polluting coal over clean energy and the jobs it will bring for Michigan.”
Food Systems and Food Justice in West Michigan
On Saturday about 20 people spent the morning discussing food justice and food policy at a forum hosted by the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council (GGRFSC). The intent of the 3-hour gathering was to share a summary of 5 separate “white papers” on different aspects of food justice & food policy and then see what direction people wanted to go in from there.
The first presenters were Christy Mello & Lisa Oliver King from Our Kitchen Table (OKT). OKT takes a food justice approach to food security. Food Justice is not so much an economic development issue, rather the emphasis is on changing the current system that makes food more accessible for people and makes food a right, not a commodity.
Their Food Diversity Project is a result of a grant that was obtained by the GGRFSC in 2008 with the intent of encouraging people to grow their food in the long-term and in a sustainable manner. Right now OKT has about 45 gardeners who are participating in the project, which includes growing food in an urban context, food sharing, canning, and seed saving. The OKT analysis advocates greater neighborhood self-reliance and urban bio-diversity.
Cynthia Price with GGRFSC presented next on the topic of urban agriculture. Her focus was on reintegrating agriculture for sustainable living through land use and municipal planning. “How important is it to have long term urban planning that incorporates urban agriculture?” Price asks. She also touched on another paper, which focused on local food and health, specifically the health benefits of eating locally. For instance, foods that are harvested and shipped long distance tend to lose some of their nutrient value.
Tom Cary, a local farmer and organizer with GGRFSC, spoke last and mostly focused on the economic impact of a local food system. The US is currently a net food importer, which is not a position the US can afford to maintain, according to Cary. The other part of the problem of being a food importer is that the food we import is under the control of large multi-national corporations, which means we have little say in the process of food production. However, Cary argues in his paper that we have some buying power through the choices we make in what we purchase.
Some of this effort to influence how food is produced and distributed is reflected in the increase of new farmers, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), farmers markets and local restaurants purchasing local produce. However, Tom said that this shift in food production and consumption still only represents about 5% of the food that people in the US consume.
Tom also mentions the disparity of what famers can earn based on the current model. In Allegan County the average farmer with 50 acres or more makes around $20,000 on average. A new farm of 4-6 acres for example, makes about $60,000 a year because the food production is more diverse and is focused on local distribution.
After hearing the presenters, everyone else in attendance introduced themselves and talked about their interests in food security, food justice and food policy. The group then decided to discuss all of the themes addressed in the white papers, instead of breaking into small groups having different discussions.
The group conversation centered around food systems with subcategories such as food justice, urban agriculture, locally grown food, the food economy and food policy & land use. The group also pointed out the importance of identifying the threats or obstacles to achieving a just food system.
Here is a partial list of all the other issues raised by the group that would are all part of the larger food systems theme: healthy food literacy, reclaiming the commons, countering the privatization of land, Government support of agribusiness, government subsidies, the lack of a government department of food, the global impact of food production on the local level, poverty, health of the soil, political power of agribusiness, the true cost of food, GMOs, diversifying local foods, affordability, hoop houses, the importance of a corporate power analysis, the need to treat people with dignity, culturally relevant food, media literacy with corporate food advertising, food co-ops, food charity organizations, urban fruit & nut trees, food waste, edible landscaping, the Farm Bill, transitional food systems, the amount of money being spent on the military industrial complex, adopting a Cuban urban ag model, and the importance of finding ways to support local small farmers who are committed to a local food system.
At the end of the morning the group decided that it would be good to have a follow up meeting soon for further discussion and to identify clear action steps to be taken at the local level. Someone also suggested that it would be good to attend the OKT Food Summit on June 10, since there would be discussion on what people are doing locally and what ways people could support each other’s work around food justice.
Send Capitalism on a Summer Vacation
Thinking about reducing your involvement with the capitalist system? Summer is the best time to get started. It’s easier to experiment with changes to your consumer life during the summer for these reasons:
Utility Escapism. Michigan has recently undergone some jarring and mostly hidden increases in utility costs, thanks to new legislation. The Michigan legislature quietly enacted a law that allows utility companies to request rate increases and then charge the increased amounts until the request is approved. If it’s turned down, the company can simply file another request and keep charging.
In addition, the state Public Service Commission gave Consumers Energy a $139.4 million rate increase—and then made headlines by knocking off a bargain $5 million from the total. Ready to stick it to these crooks? Vote with your feet; cut your utility bills down as low as you can.
It’s easy to turn off the heat in the summer, of course, but it’s also easy to reduce your electric costs. Michigan is on the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, a big energy advantage. Our summer evenings last until about 10PM at the height of the season. Don’t sit at home with the lights on and watch TV—take your dinner to the park. Sit on your porch and talk. Take a long walk.
Do you or a relative need air conditioning for health reasons? If so, you can still reduce those costs by about 3 percent for every degree you turn it up. Leave the AC off in the morning and only turn it on in the afternoons. And remember that leaving lights on just adds to the heat indoors.
Line drying of laundry saves another significant amount of electricity.
Fresh Food Perspectives. Even in the summer, when produce is plentiful, supermarkets charge premium prices for fruits and vegetables, especially if they are called “organic.” And not all of it is actually fresh. It’s a lot cheaper and better for you to buy produce locally at area farmer markets or to plant a garden.
If you can’t have your own garden, you can swap goods—home-baked bread, for example—with a friend who has too many tomatoes or zucchini. Plus, pick your own fruits and vegetables at area farms. If you eat eggs, meat, or dairy, summer is the perfect time to check out West Michigan’s organic resources of those products, such as Creswick Farms or Hilhof Dairy.
And since all this local, fresh food tastes great already, try raw preparations if you haven’t already. One dependable resource for raw recipes is Gone Raw. Nervous? Don’t be. A raw apple pie tastes as good, or better, than a baked one.
Alternative “Shopping.” Sometimes people get into the habit of hanging out at malls in the summer, and that always seems to lead to recreational shopping. But you’re not just buying stuff. You are buying into the huge markups of retail giants and chain stores. Because retailers know that, “sales” (which are usually scams where prices are just partially reduced from extra markups) are rarer in the summer.
But have you ever noticed how many things people throw away and give away in the summer? One summer I found all my porch furniture by cruising my neighborhood on trash days for wicker furniture that was being thrown out. Another time I found a solid oak Victorian dresser sitting next to a dumpster.
And for pennies on the dollar, garage sales will often yield pots and pans, a couple of new-to-you t-shirts, or other household and clothing items. Help your neighbors raise a little cash while you find what you need. Even more “cost-effective” are the Really Really Free Markets, held once a month in Grand Rapids. Bring items to give away and take away what you need—an excellent method of beating the capitalist system.
These places, plus events like art fairs (buy works directly from the people who make them), can also be venues for gifts to give friends. Holiday shopping, in particular, is one of the biggest cash cows for capitalists. In some stores items are re-ticketed every single day from Thanksgiving to Christmas, with a markup every day. If you shop local sources in the summer with gift-giving in mind, you’ll avoid putting your money in the hands of greedy big-box and department store merchants later in the year.
Free Entertainment. The multi-billion dollar movie industry counts on the fact that you must see the major summer blockbuster film the day it comes out—and pay top ticket prices. But why not wait until it’s available on a DVD from the local library? Meanwhile, there’s a lot going on that doesn’t cost anything at all. Summer in this area abounds with free outdoor concerts, free films, gallery openings and art festivals, plus neighborhood events like the Eastown’s Bizarre Bazaar.
You can go to the beach or to one of Grand Rapids’ six community pools (there’s a small charge for adults). There are festivals such as the Fiesta Mexicana on the plaza downtown. And you can check out unique free events like the Storytelling Bonfires, a night-time campfire group presenting music and stories once a month at Lamoreaux Park.
By the time fall arrives, chances are good you’ll be energized by your capitalist-lite summer experience. Use that energy to find even more ways to save, recycle, and trade. Break free from a system that guarantees you’ll always be on the losing end.
Public Citizen Urges Boycott of BP
(This article is a re-posting from Public Citizen.)
If you drive a car, boycott BP.
That’s what Public Citizen is calling on the public to do in the wake of an April 20 explosion on a BP-leased rig that is causing 210,000 gallons of oil to gush into the Gulf of Mexico every day. Already, more than 5,000 people have signed to Take the Beyond BP Pledge at http://www.citizen.org/boycott-bp.
“Eleven oil workers are dead. One of the largest oil spills in U.S. history continues to worsen. Yet BP continues to doubletalk on its responsibility and its liability,” said Robert Weissman, Public Citizen’s president. “BP must pay. A consumer boycott will deliver that message and give people a way to act on their anger. We are urging people to send a clear message to BP that its shoddy oversight of this project and its history of environmental and worker safety violations is unforgivable.”
The pledge asks people to boycott BP gas for three months. Public Citizen has also launched a Facebook group, “1,000,000 Strong to Boycott BP.”
“BP made a conscious decision not to install a $500,000 safety device that could have prevented the Gulf disaster,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program. “A company that made $14 billion in profits in 2009 – a bad year – refused to spend a fraction of a percent of its profits to safeguard against what is fast becoming the worst oil spill of all time. The sheer greed at the expense of safety and the environment is mind-boggling.”
BP has one of the worst environmental and safety records of any oil company operating in the U.S. BP has pleaded guilty in just the last few years to two crimes and paid more than $730 million in fines, penalties and settlements for environmental crimes, willful disregard for workplace safety and energy market manipulation. (See http://publiccitizenenergy.org/2010/05/05/cost-of-doing-business-bps-550-million-in-fines-2-criminal-convictions/ for details.)
“There are other places to buy gas,” Weissman said. “While no oil company is a stellar corporate citizen, BP is a particularly bad and irresponsible actor. We want the company to feel the extent of the public’s wrath.”
Added Slocum, “the BP disaster highlights the need to stop offshore drilling expansion and end our national addition to oil. It also emphasizes how crucial it is to hold Big Oil accountable. The BP boycott is a way to start.”
Yesterday, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell was in Houston, Texas to receive the 2010 Siemens Sustainable Community Award for most sustainable city in the country for midsized cities.
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce President Jeanne Englehart and Amway Corporation Sustainability Program Manager Eric Van Dellen, according to the Grand Rapids Press, joined Heartwell in receiving the award.
The brief Press article doesn’t provide any context or explanation for why Grand Rapids was chosen and the Press reporter doesn’t ask any questions about the significance of the award and what it means in terms of what the city has actually done to promote sustainability. However, there are several questions that could be asked and numerous observations to be made about what such an award actually means.
First, we should consider the source of the award. The US Chamber of Commerce and the Siemens Corporation are bestowing this sustainability award. Siemens is a global corporation that operates in the areas of “Information and Communications, Automation and Control, Power, Transportation, Medical, and Lighting.” According to Source Watch, the company has engaged in questionable labor practices in China, practices that even break Chinese labor laws.
The US Chamber of Commerce is also rife with contradictions, when comparing their politics to that of sustainable policies. First, the Chamber is dominated by oil, pharmaceutical, automobile and other major polluting industries. Second, the Chamber has aggressively opposed climate change legislation in the US, even though the proposed legislation has been very weak.
Third, the Chamber has opposed virtually all pro-worker initiatives in recent decades, most recently the Employee Free Choice Act. Lastly, it is worth noting that the US Chamber of Commerce has spent more money lobbying Congress than any other entity since 1998, spending over $638 million to influence policy. Receiving a sustainability award from these corporate entities is like receiving a peace award from the Pentagon.
A second question that should be asked by any competent journalist is what criterion did the Chamber/Siemens award committee use to determine which cities won? According to the 2010 Siemens Sustainable Community Awards website, “A sustainable community has committed to setting and achieving complementary economic, environmental, and social goals that will help build long-term competitiveness and success.” This statement is rather vague and could be interpreted in any number of ways.
The Chamber/Siemens award site does have a summary document on what they identify as sustainability in Grand Rapids. “The City of Grand Rapids’ Sustainability Plan is a commitment to sustainable development, such as the construction of LEED-certified buildings, innovative uses of energy, renewable energy development, promotion of public transportation, waste elimination, resource conservation, job creation, increased education attainment, and pedestrian and bicycle access.”
Not surprising the document includes as the first item is the City’s construction of LEED-certified buildings. While there is something positive to be said about more energy efficient buildings it does not take into account where the resources for the buildings come from, the pollution generated during construction and most importantly what happens inside those buildings. If what happens inside is inherently unsustainable, then any positive gains made from energy conservation are negated by what the entity which occupies the building does.
It is true that the City has reduced its energy consumption and has increased the amount renewable energy production, but this statistic refers to the city owned buildings themselves and not the city as a whole, which is an important distinction. It would be interesting to see what the data is for energy use for the businesses, industries and residents of the city as a whole were.
The document also states that the award recognizes that the city promotes public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle access. The public transportation system is still grossly inadequate for a city the size of Grand Rapids, where the majority of people who live and work in the area still drive. Traffic congestion is a major problem as is the amount of land that is devoted to parking. There certainly has been an increase in people using bicycles in recent years, but for anyone who commutes by bike you know how dangerous it is to ride in Grand Rapids, a city with virtually no bike lanes.
Such an award is also questionable considering that the city is unable to balance its own budget, cutting basic services and home to a growing underclass living in poverty.
Much more could be said about the actually sustainable practices within the City of Grand Rapids, but the Grand Rapids Press nor anyone else should not just accept on face value such an award, in part because it is given out by entities which do not practice sustainability themselves and because the city if far from being truly sustainable.
US Supreme Court Nominee Kagan has Troubling Record
(This article by Marjorie Cohn is re-posted from Common Dreams.)
After President Obama nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court, he made a statement that implied she would follow in the footsteps of Justice Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights giant and first black Supreme Court justice. Kagan served as a law clerk for Marshall shortly after she graduated from Harvard Law School. Specifically, Obama said that Marshall’s “understanding of law, not as an intellectual exercise or words on a page, but as it affects the lives of ordinary people, has animated every step of Elena’s career.” Unfortunately, history does not support Obama’s optimism that Kagan is a disciple of Marshall.
Kagan demonstrated while working as his law clerk that she disagreed with Marshall’s jurisprudence. In 1988, the Supreme Court decided Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, a case about whether a school district could make a poor family pay for busing their child to the closest school, which was 16 miles away. The 5-justice majority held that the busing fee did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. They rejected the proposition that education is a fundamental right which would subject the statute on which the school district relied to ‘strict scrutiny.’ The Court also declined to review the statute with ‘heightened scrutiny’ even though it had different effects on the wealthy and the poor. Instead, the majority found a ‘rational basis’ for the statute, that is, allocating limited governmental resources.
Marshall asked clerk Kagan to craft the first draft of a strong dissent in that case. But Kagan had a difficult time complying with Marshall’s wishes and he returned several drafts to her for, in Kagan’s words, “failing to express in a properly pungent tone – his understanding of the case.” Ultimately, Marshall’s dissent said, “The intent of our Fourteenth Amendment was to abolish caste legislation.” He relied on Plyler v. Doe, in which the Court had upheld the right of the children of undocumented immigrants to receive free public education in the State of Texas. “As I have stated on prior occasions,” Marshall wrote, “proper analysis of equal protection claims depends less on choosing the formal label under which the claim should be reviewed than upon identifying and carefully analyzing the real interests at stake.” Kagan later complained that Marshall “allowed his personal experiences, and the knowledge of suffering and deprivation gained from those experiences to guide him.”
Kagan evidently rejects these humanistic factors that guided Marshall’s decision making and would follow a more traditional approach. This is a matter of concern for progressives, who worry about how the Supreme Court will deal with issues like a woman’s right to choose, same sex marriage, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the right of corporations to donate money to political campaigns without restraint. While Kagan has remained silent on many controversial issues, she has announced her belief that the Constitution provides no right to same-sex marriage. If the issue of marriage equality comes before the Court, Justice Kagan would almost certainly rule that denying same sex couples the right to marry does not violate equal protection.
There are other indications that should give progressives pause as well. During her solicitor general confirmation hearing, Kagan said, “The Constitution generally imposes limitations on government rather than establishes affirmative rights and thus has what might be thought of as a libertarian slant. I fully accept this traditional understanding…” But the Constitution is full of affirmative rights – the right to a jury trial, the right to counsel, the right to assemble and petition the government, etc. Does Kagan not understand that decisions made by the Supreme Court give life and meaning to these fundamental rights? Is she willing to interpret those provisions in a way that will preserve individual liberties?
While Kagan generally thinks the Constitution serves to limit governmental power, she nevertheless buys into the Republican theory that the Executive Branch should be enhanced. In one of her few law review articles, Kagan advocated expansive executive power consistent with a formulation from the Reagan administration. This is reminiscent of the ‘unitary executive’ theory that George W. Bush used to justify grabbing unbridled executive power in his ‘war on terror.’
As solicitor general, Kagan asserted in a brief that the ‘state secrets privilege’ is grounded in the Constitution. The Obama White House, like the Bush administration, is asserting this privilege to prevent people who the CIA sent to other countries to be tortured and people challenging Bush’s secret spying program from litigating their cases in court.
During her forthcoming confirmation hearing, senators should press Kagan to define her judicial philosophy. Several of the radical right-wingers on the Court define themselves as ‘originalists’, claiming to interpret the Constitution consistent with the intent of the founding fathers.
I would like to hear Kagan say that her judicial philosophy is that human rights are more sacred than property interests. I would hope she would declare that her judicial philosophy favors the right to self-determination – of other countries to control their destinies, of women to control their bodies, and of all people to choose whom they wish to marry.
Kagan is likely to be circumspect about her views. She will frequently decline to answer, protesting that issues may come before the Court. We should be wary about how Justice Kagan will rule when they do.
Calvin Students Rally for Immigrant Rights
Yesterday, about 150 people gathered outside on the campus of Calvin College to publicly proclaim their support for immigrant rights. Students and community members also came together to denounce the recent anti-immigration law in Arizona and the similarly proposed legislation here in Michigan.
The event had a religious overtone, which included songs, a liturgy and prayer, but the students were clear about how their faith instructs them to “welcome the alien in a foreign land.” The belief that everyone should be welcomed and treated with dignity was demonstrated by having the entire rally translated into Spanish.
The rally also included several speakers that addressed issues of racial profiling, immigrant rights, and educational opportunities for children of immigrants. The first speaker was Professor Dan Miller who discussed the history of immigration policy in the US. He also made it clear that the current immigration policies do not work and he invite the crowd to support comprehensive immigration reform.
Professor Miller was followed by an African American man who told his very personal story about the difficulty he has had with getting the proper paperwork for his Mexican wife, who was born in the US. He said that the level of bureaucracy was very frustrating and it made him realize how difficult it is for people to want to be legal residents/citizens of the US.
The audience then heard from a young Latina woman who spoke about her desires to go to college. She told the crowd that she can’t be accepted by any college or university because her parents came to the US papers. She talked about how she is now part of a larger struggle to fight for her right to get a college education and what is happening at a national level to pass what is called The Dream Act.
Another Latino addressed the crowd and told his story about wanting the best for himself and his family. He talked about how hard he has worked and the roadblocks he has faced along the way, but that it is important for all of us to stick together and build solidarity, especially if we want equality for everyone.
The rally organizers invited people to sign letters to elected officials and to be involved in ongoing efforts to push for immigrant rights. The Michigan Organizing Project (MOP) will be taking busloads of people to Kalamazoo next month to pressure President Obama on comprehensive immigration reform while he is giving a commencement address.
We also had a chance to briefly interview one of the event organizers on camera.
