Greene County Democrat

Tag: Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  • Newswire : Lilly Ledbetter, a pay equality pioneer,dead at 86

    Lilly Ledbetter

    By: Mary Claire Wooten, Alabama Political Reporters

    Lilly Ledbetter, a notable women’s equality activist, died on Saturday at 86. According to her family, Ledbetter died of respiratory failure.

    Ledbetter worked at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden for 19 years before receiving an anonymous note and discovering that her male counterparts with similar experience and seniority were paid as much as $2,000 more monthly for their work. She had worked there from 1979 until her retirement in 1998.

    She successfully sued Goodyear, receiving back pay and the cost of compensatory and punitive damages. Still, the judgment was reversed on appeal by the Eleventh Circuit since she had not filed within the 180-day window.

    The lawsuit eventually reached the Supreme Court in 2007, which ruled against her. The Supreme Court upheld the appeal court ruling that Ledbetter had not filed the suit within the 180-day window. As a result, Ledbetter never collected any kind of settlement from Goodyear.
    In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, “once again, the ball is in Congress’s court.” This ignited activist groups, who saw the court’s decision as a setback for women and civil rights

    In 2009, the 111th United States Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to make filing pay discrimination claims easier. It was the first bill then-President Barack Obama signed into law after taking office in 2009.

    The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act allows workers to file a complaint 180 days after the last pay violation and not only 180 days after the initial pay disparity.

  • Newswire : Supreme Court upholds Muslim travel ban

    by: Frederick Lowe, Northstar News

    Supreme Court.jpg

    U. S. Supreme Court building

    The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Trump a major victory Tuesday by upholding his ban on immigrants and visitors from seven mostly Muslim countries.
    In a 5-4 ruling in the case titled Trump v. Hawaii, the justices rejected the argument that Trump overstepped his authority under immigration laws and that the targeting of mostly Muslim-majority countries amounted to religious discrimination.
    Chief Justice John Roberts who wrote the majority opinion said the ruling concerned the nation’s security.
    Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court’s ruling blindly endorsed a discriminatory policy motivated by animosity towards Muslims.
    Sotomayor added that the ruling is a total and complete shutdown of Muslims coming to this country under a façade masquerading as national security measures.
    Trump’s order issued in September 2017 was the third version of the travel ban. It imposed a 90-day ban on citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia Yemen, North Korea, and Venezuela entering the U.S. Later, the order put a 120-day hold on the admission of refugees.
    “The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States. In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those coming into our country,” Trump said in a statement.
    Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, advocacy and rights groups warned of an increase in attacks against Muslims, reported Al Jazeera.
    Since Trump took office, reports of crimes against Muslims have climbed, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman of Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Al Jazeera.