Welcome to Justiceline, ThinkProgress Justice’s morning round-up of the latest legal news and developments. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @TPJustice.
The Washington Supreme Court holds that an employee can be fired for medical marijuana use, even if they are doing so with a state-sanctioned prescription.
The Supreme Court wants you to know that fleeing police in a car chase is a really, really bad idea.
The European Union’s highest court threatens sanctions against France if the French do not provide adequate protection to prevent a rare species of hamster from going extinct.
Iowa state Sen. Shawn Hammerlinck (R) thinks college students who actually want to get an education are part of a grand Democratic Party conspiracy.
The Mississippi Supreme Court formally reprimands a state judge for jailing an attorney who wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance.
And, finally, for the three people in America who just can’t get enough of Sharron Angle — she has a new, self-published autobiography.
Sharron Angle was last seen losing a race for U.S. Senate to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) in an election in which her extreme positions and statements damaged her standing with even some Republicans in Nevada. For example, she said she opposed abortions even in cases of rape or incest because it would interfere with God’s “plan.” She also famously suggested “Second Amendment remedies” to electoral losses.
Now, Angle is back on the campaign trail and running for the House of Representatives. But she doesn’t appear to have toned down her extreme rhetoric. Last week, Angle sent out an e-mail blasting the Veterans of Foreign Wars for endorsing Democrats. In an e-mail titled “Don’t Allow are (sic) Veterans to be Betrayed any longer,” Angle compared Democrats to members of Al Qaeda:
The founding principles of our nation have been under siege for some time. It’s not just radical groups like al-Qaeda that threaten our liberty, either. Many of our own elected leaders have decided that the Constitution is archaic and, therefore, can be ignored! (Case in point: nationalized healthcare.) Modernized communication technologies, the liberal media, and Alinsky-like doctrine have accelerated a moral decline and an historical ambivalence that threaten the American way of life for us and future generations.
In an interview this weekend with KSNV’s To the Point, Angle was questioned about the e-mail, and not only stood firm in her assertion, but specifically singled out President Obama as a domestic enemy:
ANCHOR: Is that enemy inside the federal government? Elected members of Congress or Senate, is that the enemy?
ANGLE: Well certainly we’ve seen some leadership that has embraced things that we as Americans are really shocked at seeing, and I think that that comes directly from the leadership of the president. He has been not convincingly a constitutionalist and we know that our constitution is what should drive our involvement throughout the world, in things like what has just happened with, uh — Libya.
Watch it:
Angle is running to represent Nevada’s 2nd Congressional district, which she won by seven points last fall, despite losing the general election to Reid.
Over the past few months, conservatives have beat a steady drum accusing public servants, particularly public school teachers, of being a blight on the nation. Republicans governors from across the county, along with a chorus of Fox News personalities, have scapegoated teachers as overpaid workers who receive too many benefits on the taxpayers’ dime.
However, public teachers have found an unlikely ally: failed Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV). Speaking to a class at Dutch Fork High School in South Carolina recently, the staunch conservative told students that public school teachers are dedicated public servants who are generally over-worked and under-paid for their profession:
ANGLE: I think that improving public education in Nevada is the same as improving public education all over the nation. [...] Teachers who are really good teachers do this not because of the pay, not because of the three month vacation, and not because they work a six hour day. And if you know a good teacher you know none of those things are true.
They don’t get paid like other professionals do. Their three month vacation turns out usually to be more like two months in the summer and they’re usually going back to school so they can learn more so they can stay ahead of you. Their six hour day is more like a sixty hour work week because they have more than they do than the six hours they spend in the classroom. They are dedicated professionals and they are dedicated to you. They are usually very honest, caring individuals and they want what’s best for you. When you talk about the three people who are most vested in education, that’s where our resources should be put, that’s where our concentration should be, that’s what we should be asking ‘what would make a better school?’
Watch it:
Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof rebuked the Republican war on teachers and pointed out that teacher pay has been plummeting for decades. “In 1970, in New York City, a newly minted teacher at a public school earned about $2,000 less in salary than a starting lawyer at a prominent law firm,” Kristof noted. “These days the lawyer takes home, including bonus, $115,000 more than the teacher, the McKinsey study found.”
First, Republican senatorial candidate Sharron Angle ran offensive images of menacing Latino men with flashlights walking along a fence alongside a snapshot of an innocent looking white family in order to make the point that her opponent Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is the “best friend an illegal alien ever had.” Then her campaign released a second commercial with a new image of scowling Latino men juxtaposed against a photo of white college graduates. Despite the fact that her ads have sparked outrage in the Latino community, Angle has decided to continue with her anti-Latino campaign theme.
In her newest attack ad, Angle pits brown against white in order to make the case that Reid is a friend of dark-skinned, scary looking “illegal aliens” and an enemy of white Nevadans like her:
Watch it:
Angle’s third ad is especially surprising considering the fact that many outlets are reporting that Latinos may decide the tight Nevada senatorial race. “Angle has made few friends among Latinos after she supported neighboring Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law, the strictest in the nation to curb illegal immigrants. And as polling day gets closer, her gaffes and missteps are helping to bring the Latino vote out for Reid,” reported Reuters last week.
First, Republican senatorial candidate Sharron Angle ran offensive images of menacing Latino men with flashlights walking along a fence alongside a snapshot of an innocent looking white family in order to make the point that her opponent Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is the “best friend an illegal alien ever had.” Then her campaign released a second commercial with a new image of scowling Latino men juxtaposed against a photo of white college graduates. Despite the fact that her ads have sparked outrage in the Latino community, Angle has decided to continue with her anti-Latino campaign theme.
In her newest attack ad, Angle pits brown against white in order to make the case that Reid is a friend of dark-skinned, scary looking “illegal aliens” and an enemy of white Nevadans like her:
Watch it:
Angle’s third ad is especially surprising considering the fact that many outlets are reporting that Latinos may decide the tight Nevada senatorial race. “Angle has made few friends among Latinos after she supported neighboring Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law, the strictest in the nation to curb illegal immigrants. And as polling day gets closer, her gaffes and missteps are helping to bring the Latino vote out for Reid,” reported Reuters last week.
A couple weeks ago, I reported that the chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Hispanic Caucus and Sharron Angle (R-NV) spokesperson, Tibi Ellis, criticized her own candidate’s immigration ads on Spanish-language radio. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Ellis told 1060 AM Spanish radio host Edwin Saldarriaga “I condemned this type of propaganda, no matter who is running them, where they blame Mexicans as the only problem and where they attack them as the only source of illegal immigration.”
Yesterday, Ellis told progressive radio host Mario Solis Marich that the Las Vegas Sun misrepresented her remarks. In an attempt to set the record straight, Ellis began to tepidly back away from her criticisms of Angle’s ads and defend the conservative movement:
HOST: Are you okay with Sharron Angle’s ads that have been condemned nationwide as anti-immigrant?
ELLIS: I am okay with Sharron Angle’s ads that condemn anti-illegal immigration, yes.
HOST: So you’re okay with those ads?
ELLIS: No no no! Your question is about the anti-illegal immigration ads, yes, because I am an anti-illegal immigration policy person. I am not okay with having only the face of a Mexican immigrant as the representation of illegal immigration because illegal immigration has many colors. [...]
HOST: So you’re okay with Sharron Angle’s ads, we established that. Okay, so now we can move on. You’re set, okay? [Silence] [...] Does the anti-immigrant movement in this country — is it based within the conservative movement?
ELLIS: I disagree with that.
Listen:
Ellis may not be aware of the fact that Angle told a group of Latino students that they have been “misinterpreting” her commercials. “I’m not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence. What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through,” she said.
Ellis also accused Angle’s opponent, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) of “scapegoating” Latinos by using an image of a Latina to represent the undocumented students that Reid is trying to help via his support of the DREAM Act. Solis Marich explained to Ellis that there’s a difference between pandering and scapegoating and that while Reid may be guilty of pandering to Latinos, he can’t be accused of scapegoating them. In fact, the two words are logical opposites in politics.
When asked about the controversial ads telling Latinos not to vote which almost aired in Nevada, Ellis denied they had any connection to the conservative movement. Instead, she tried to argue that they were funded by the Latino Coalition, which she described as a bi-partisan organization. However, the Latino Coalition explicitly condemned the ads.
Curiously, Solis Marich opened the segment explaining that Ellis had agreed to go on his show to talk about politics, but changed her mind at the last minute and would not be appearing. Apparently, Ellis was under the impression that his show was in Spanish and shortly after finding out it was actually in English, she sent Solis Marich’s producer an email saying that it was her birthday and she no longer wanted to participate. Apparently, she had a change of heart and ended up calling in anyway. You can listen to the full interview here.
Last week, ThinkProgress broke the news that both senatorial candidates Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) used the same racially-tinged image in separate attack ads against their opponents and described the subjects in the photo as “illegal aliens.” Besides invoking offensive anti-Latino stereotypes, the photographer of the photo, Chris Floyd, later informed the Washington Post that the “illegal aliens” in the picture were actually Mexicans still in Mexico.
Now it appears both ads have been removed from YouTube. Vitter’s is marked as “private,” and Angle’s video has been pulled down due to a “copyright claim by Getty Images, Inc.”
In a phone interview with ThinkProgress, Floyd indicated that he’s still waiting to hear himself what, if any, legal actions Getty Images is pursuing. Floyd explained that he has a contract with Getty which means that they have the “first right to pursue legal action in the event of a copyright violation.”
However, Floyd did seem confident that the Angle and Vitter campaigns are at the very least morally, if not legally, culpable:
I think this is a question of principle. The only legal place they could’ve obtained that image [on the Getty Images website] clearly printed out that the people in the photo were not illegal aliens, but Mexicans in Mexico. That means they either purposefully deceived their audience or they stole the photo from somewhere else.
Whether it was done intentionally or not, Floyd maintains that “they [the Vitter and Angle campaigns] completely distorted the reality of my photo.”
Floyd also expressed concern over how the improper use of the photo could reflect on him. “Someone might see my photo and say ‘that guy [Floyd] is clearly not an impartial and informed photojournalist, he’s just trying to further his own extremist agenda.’” However, that is certainly not the case. “I just want to be able to do my work in a way that’s fair and balanced,” said Floyd.
Getty Images did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment. However, the company’s editorial policy, as printed on their website, reads, “We believe that photographs are the visual communication of a story and should be held to an equal level of accountability, responsibility and integrity as the written word in journalism. Images illustrate and reflect the events of our world today and therefore have a responsibility to be delivered to the customer with accuracy and impartiality.”
Last month, Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle (R) released an attack ad on her opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Besides being racially offensive, the ad was also patently false. The ad erroneously alleged that that Reid is the “best friend an illegal alien ever had” because he supposedly voted to give undocumented immigrants tax breaks and Social Security benefits as the rest of Nevadans languish in a deep recession.
In her debate last night against Reid, Angle was given the opportunity to either clarify her claims or apologize for her deceptive ad. However, Angle did neither. Instead, she merely repeated the allegations in her ad without providing any further evidence to indicate they are true:
MODERATOR: In a television ad you quoted that Senator Reid, “voted to give special tax breaks to illegal aliens and to give illegals social security benefits.” Most reputable factcheckers have said that’s patently false, especially the line about Social Security benefits. The ad was even criticized by the chair of the Republican Hispanic caucus. Would you like to denounce the ad as deceptive or give voters documented evidence about its accuracy?
ANGLE: Not at all. I’m glad to give voters the opportunity to see that Harry Reid has voted to give Social Security to illegal aliens. Not only did he vote to give it to them after they have become citizens but even before they were citizens he voted to give them the benefits of our Social Security. [...]
Watch it:
Angle then awkwardly pivoted and started talking about the nation’s Social Security system and how it’s not “being addressed.” Somehow the conversation shifted from a discussion about Reid’s immigration votes to his own social security retirement account. Reid later pointed out that Angle didn’t answer the question and maintained “everything she has said in the ad is false.” Angle responded, “I think the question has everything to do with Social Security and what’s gone wrong in our system.”
Politifact shed some light on the claims back when Angle’s ad came out. Reid’s votes affected the policy for former undocumented immigrants who were later made legal. Before a change in the law in 2007, Reid voted twice in support of allowing legal immigrants who had worked in the U.S. without papers before fixing their status to get credit for money they had paid into the Social Security system years before, when they were undocumented. Politifact notes that the vote was not about “giving benefits,” but rather on “chang[ing] the calculation process” of credits earned toward Social Security.
Angle also doesn’t mention in her ad that Reid later voted in favor of an amendment in 2007 to essentially prevent former undocumented immigrants from earning credit for Social Security payments after obtaining legal status. The amendment became law. Furthermore, undocumented immigrants who never obtain legal status are not even eligible to earn credits or collect Social Security benefits at any point in their lives.
Asked if there was anything at all insurance companies should be mandated to cover during tonight’s Nevada Senate debate, Sharron Angle doubled down on her now infamous opposition to coverage mandates and suggested that they shouldn’t. “What we have here is a choice between the free markets and Americanism,” she said. “America is about choices. The free market will weed out those companies that do not offer as many choices and do not have a cost-effective system”:
ANGLE: What we want is a basic policy where we can have the coverages that we need. I taught autistic children. I know this is a biomedical disorder, and it needs to have its own insurance code so that families can get the right treatment and also be covered…we need to stop making band-aid applications and look at real solutions when we talk about health care, and really, forcing someone to buy something they do not need is not the way to solve a problem.
Watch it:
During an earlier Republican primary debate, Angle went a step further, saying that she had “introduced three bills” in the state legislator to eliminate coverage mandates — a claim she did not make tonight, because it’s not true. According to an exhaustive search of Angle’s record in the State legislator by the Las Vegas Sun, rather than trying to eliminate mandates, Angle co-sponsored legislation expanding them. “Angle proposed no fewer than five laws that would have expanded state insurance mandates,” the paper reported. “She co-sponsored a bill to require insurance companies to cover mammograms and another bill, which she later voted against, to cover osteoporosis treatment. She co-sponsored legislation that would have required an insurance company to continue covering the treatment of a patient if the company’s contract with the provider was canceled before the treatment was completed.”
Thus, despite her comments tonight, Angle’s record suggests that even she once believed that the government should set basic standards for insurance coverage to ensure that individuals receive adequate coverage when they need it most.
Asked about her position on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell during tonight’s Nevada Senate debate, Sharron Angle began by saying that lawmakers should defer the decision over wether or not to repeal the policy to the military, but then tried to conflate open service with same-sex marriage:
ANGLE: The policies within the military, especially this one are under review right now. And we should be waiting for the review of our military to make those decisions, not jumping ahead and making those decisions as Senator Reid tried to do when he put a provision of that provision in the defense bill. We and here in Nevada have been very careful to define marriage as between a man and a woman through two general elections. Over 70% of the population has voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman. I support what Mevada has done and I will represent our constituents on that basis.
Watch it:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responded by suggesting that Angle “does not understand what went on in Washington” and reiterated that under the amendment included in the National Defense Authorization Act, DADT is not repealed until, President Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen “certified it would not hurt our defense.”
Angle, still unclear on how the amendment works, responded with: “We should be looking at that review before we make bills based on that review. So the review needs to come first and then the bill. I submit to you that I do know the proces. The process is, read the bill first, then pass it.“
Welcome to Justiceline, ThinkProgress Justice’s morning round-up of the latest legal news and developments. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @TPJustice.
