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WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) 30 minutes ago — The Supreme Court made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct.
By a 5-4 vote, justices said the nation’s 20 million public employees do not have carte blanche free speech rights to disclose government’s inner-workings. New Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court’s majority, said the First Amendment does not protect “every statement a public employee makes in the course of doing his or her job.”
The ruling sided with the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, which appealed an appellate court ruling which held that prosecutor Richard Ceballos was constitutionally protected when he wrote a memo questioning whether a county sheriff’s deputy had lied in a search warrant affidavit.
Ceballos had filed a lawsuit claiming he was demoted and denied a promotion for trying to expose the lie.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Bit by bit, protection by protection, our rights are going out the window.
Here`s how my old friend & neighbor had his rights trampled. He`s dead as a result. A very nice man, Don would never hurt anyone, nor needed to.
Yesterday, I ran across a reminder, put out by another concerned person, remembering Don on Memorial Day. Don was my neighbor to the west, a few miles from my ranch, on Mulholland Canyon. The state wanted his ranch. They did get mine, while I got the shaft. Don got the lead.
Here`s a link to the article, with many details & a photo of Frances his widow.
Because of the SCOTUS decision, I thought of the DA of Ventura who spoke out about the deputy who killed Don.
http://www.fear.org/scott.html
If you don’t mind, how did they get your property KNUCLEHEAD?
I got it from a friend; an old man who couldn`t live there anymore & wanted a nice place for me to raise my family. I recvd. a lifetime tenantcy,
agreement from him. The ranch is now a state park that is barely visited.
The administrator of the Santa Monica Mountain Consevancy wanted my ranch as another feather in his cap. The different gov. agencies involved,
a lot of them the same ones that tried for years to get Don`s ranch tried to scare me out many times. I did at one point face off with JOE EDMINSTON {the director of the SMMC, mentioned above] with my persuader; 12 guage. I had fish & game, state police agencies, sherriffs,
animal control state park police & anybody they could try & intimidate me with, try to get me to leave.
The owner Dick Mason, now deceased, could not get involved for health reasons, & I was left to fight through the courts for my rights. I was screwed & tattooed by Judge Merrick I thought, although he had been very nice to me in past legal encounters. After the death of my wife in 1984, & left to raise kids by myself the intrusions accelerated to the point where it`s really surprising I wasn`t shot outright.
They eventually took possesion through emminent domain & screwed me out of all relocation fees due me. All my possesions were moved to a warehouse as per law, but were eventually lost in the nonexistant paperwork. Now the real war began. With no place to live, as the relocation plan by law was supposed to be provided for me [screwed again] the law now could take my three year old daughter for being homeless. I secreted her away with good friends to keep her out of public view. Within the next two weeks I was stopped by the sherriffs 10 times, but was unwilling to answer any ?`s about my daughter. She was only 3 1/2 at the time.
Hey Supersoling this is getting long & I`m doing just fine. I did have to go back to court to warn the same judge that if he didn`t stop these police actions he would be responsible for a death. I told him it would not be him, it would probably not be the police, but rather it would be me. I told him to make them stop, NOW. this was all in open court so I guess he had to do something. I mellowed a bit & they don`t bother me anymore. But Scott is still dead as a result of the same actions they used on me. I still see his wife every now & then.
I believe another reason they seemed to like to mess with me was the fact that I had 10 yrs. previously taken 6 RCMP`s as hostages during a siege in international waters that lasted 13 days.
But that`s for another show.
Have a nice day & I hope you`re` doing well.
Tony