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Discussion Department of Health
For this discussion, assume you have a job with the federal government in the
Department of Health
. You work in a back room and do not engage with the public, but you specifically deal with childbirth issues. You are also heavily involved in many social causes, including membership in several anti-abortion groups. After work, you often march and protest with these groups throughout Washington, DC. You wear many t-shirts to work that express your anti-abortion beliefs. There is no dress code at work, but several of the employees have complained to your boss about the clothes you wear to work. Your boss has told you that you can no longer wear your anti-abortion t-shirts to work and that you might want to rethink your after work activities.
For your initial response, discuss who is right – you or your boss? Be sure to incorporate course concepts from this week’s reading into your response. You are making constitutional arguments, so do not focus on the anti-abortion subject matter.Peer ResponseRespond to each of the two students:
Timothy
If there is truly no dress code, then the boss is in the wrong in this scenario. If the boss believes that personal beliefs are affecting the work being done, then he or she should address the performance issues, and not directly the dress code issue. Since there is no dress code in existence, it can be an infringment on an employees first amendement right to free speech to not allow them to wear a t-shirt supporting their personal views. The boss could have a conversation about the t-shirts and messaging, and request them not to be worn, but to outright disallow it would be wrong. The question here is if the attire is causing the workplace to become hostile or is it affecting performance of any employees. The resolution may be that a dress code is needed, in which case it will be difficult to draw the line, for a government office, as to what is acceptable and what is not without infringing on a person’s first amendment right. At the same time, it is important to create a workspace that is not threatining to other workers and allows them to go about their work.
As for the second issue, attending protests during personal time, this again is no place for the boss to tell an employee what he or she can do in their free time. The First amendment guarantees everyone the right to peaceably protest. This includes government employees. As long as the protesting is done on personal time and within other legal boundaries, there should be no reason for a boss to tell any government employee that they need to “rethink” their after work activities.
Amy
In the first part of the case of a Department of Health worker, I believe the employer was within their rights to restrict the employee from wearing disruptive work attire, regardless of the message behind the disruption. Our text cites two areas of reference for this topic. The first is that this situation is an example of content vs. context. Whereas, the government may not consider the content of what is being said, but they can regulate how, where, and when those expressions are being shared. The second points of reference are the historical precidents in which the courts have ruled in favor of the government organizations over an employee’s First Amendment rights, as in the cases of Natalie Monroe or Richard Ceballos. (McAdams, pg. 198) In a measure of weighing the government agency’s interest against a single government employee, it would seem that the courts tend to favor the agency’s interests above the individual’s. On a personal note, at my company, we maintain a policy of no political, religious, or social promotion or derrogatory campaigning, advertising, or publishing of one’s opinions in the workplace. It is a policy of inclusion, rather than exclusion however. Even if an employee doesn’t interface with the public, it would reflect poorly on the company if anyone were to feel ostracized because of something that one person in the company were to display. In the second part of this case, I believe the employer to be in the wrong. While the employee is not working, they should be considered as a private citizen exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Provided they are adhering to the law with regard to the context of their marches or other protest activities, they shouldn’t be regulated or be made to fear reprisal for how they spend their free time.
LexisNexis
Description:
The purpose of this Problem Assignment is for you to become familiar with how to use the
LexisNexis legal research database, read common law, and prepare a Case Brief. Case Briefs
help students expand their knowledge of common law.
Instructions:
1. Assume you have decided to set up your own business. As you work through this
assignment you will select a state in which you will conduct your business.
2. Access the LexisNexis database at the Danforth Library and conduct research by doing the
following:
a. From the New England College website, click on “Library” and “Library Online
Resources” and then scroll down to the Danforth Databases click under “Lexis-Nexis
Academic.” At some point, you will need to enter your six-digit NEC ID #, so have it
handy.
b. Once you are on the Lexis-Nexis database page scroll down and click on “Look up a
Legal Case”
c. Add your search terms into the topic box. You will be looking for a case that
concerns a business ethics issue. “Business ethics” may be an appropriate search
term, but you may need to try other terms
d. Look to the list to the left and click under one of the states that you want to work
with. One or more cases should pop up. Try to use a more recent case to complete
the assignment.
3. How to read the case you have found
a. Reading a court case may seem to be daunting, but it is not.
b. Court decisions usually follow a specific format as follows:
i.
At the top, you will see the name of the parties, which is known as the case
name.
ii.
Next, you should see the court in which the case was decided.
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iii.
The citation, which includes the volume, page, and name of the reporter in
which the case can be found, follows.
iv.
Finally, you will see the date the decision was reached. When you cite a case,
you start with the name of the case and underline it, e.g., Smith v. Jones. You
add a comma after the case name and then include the citation, starting with
volume, then reporter, and ending with the page on which the case is found.
Lastly, you add the state and court where the decision was decided and the
year in which the decision was made and include this information in
parentheses. A proper citation might look like the following: Smith v. Jones,
746 N.W.2d 220 (N.H. Sup. Ct. 2010).
c. The next item you will find is a Case Summary or Overview. This will explain how the
case happened to end up in the court, a summary of the issues, and the court’s
decision or holding
d. Next, you should find the “Head Notes.” These lead you to specific areas within the
case where a particular topic is discussed. You can skim these, but you don’t need to
worry about reading all of the “Head Notes.”
e. The name of the judge should appear next, right before the decision. What you will
be reading and outlining for your Case Brief is the decision, which will appear after
the name of the judge.
4. How to prepare your Case Brief
a. Treat your Case Brief as an outline of the court’s decision.
b. Your Case Brief should contain the following sections:
i.
Parties and citation – complete this section as specified under 3b above.
ii.
Facts – summarize the important facts in the case. The facts are usually right
near the beginning of the decision. Your summary can be in the form of
bullets.
iii.
Issue(s) – you should be able to ascertain the issue or issues in the case from
the Case Summary or within the decision. The issues are usually the first
thing discussed in the decision. For your Case Brief, concentrate on what you
believe is the central issue in the case. Here is where the Head Notes may
help you.
iv.
Holding – explain how the court decided the central issue. You will find this
under the Case Summary and usually at the end of the decision.
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v.
Reasoning – how did the court support its decision? List important rules from
other common law cases or statutes/codes the court relied on in making its
decision. The reasoning will usually be found after the facts in the decision.
5. You are not expected to understand all of the legal terminology in the decision, but you
should be able to read and understand the essence of the court’s decision and the holding
that the court made and demonstrate this understanding in your Case Brief.
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