Often times the corrupt system preys on those that are ignorant of their rights. It’s extremely important for activists to be aware of all their civil rights. One important law that UH SAS has learned is the Texas law on taping phone calls and other forms of electronic communication. Texas is known as a one party consent state. That means only one party has to give their consent to tape a conversation.
For example, if you were being harassed by a bill collector and thought that the speech veered into a criminal violation you could tape the conversation without asking bill collector’s permission. See this website for more information on the specific law in Texas: summary of Texas laws on one party consent.
Probably the most important right for activists is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which is also known as freedom of expression. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief.
The First Amendmentprotects the freedom to speak your mind and protest in peace without being bridled by the government. It also protects the freedom of the media, as well as the right to worship and pray without interference. In other words, Americans cannot be silenced by the government.
The University of Texas, the flagship school in our state even has an explicit policy recognizing this important right:
“First Amendment Rights
In general, expressions of opinion by members of the university community that do not otherwise violate state and federal laws or university rules are protected as “free speech.” This is true even though the opinions expressed may be unpopular or offensive to some. With a population of 71,000, UT Austin encompasses a wide array of opinions and views. We encourage all those associated with the university to exercise their constitutional rights and freedoms responsibly. We do not, however, punish people who express views that may be unpopular or offensive, but who break no laws or university rules while doing so.”
Recently a lawyer with the Texas Attorney General’s office filed an extremely useless motion in a lawsuit that our member Tim filed for some shenanigans around his graduate education. We thought it would be instructive to post it to see how unfamiliar this silly lawyer is with the First Amendment… read and enjoy, very little of what is written in the motion is actually factual or based on any law, but that does not stop this silly man. It’s important to keep in mind the fact that this guy has to work for the public is because he couldn’t get a job at a big firm. Since he has very few legal skills (he has not been able to get Tim’s federal lawsuit against our University [now a year old] dismissed either) he has to spend his time imagining the First Amendment does not exist and wasting the taxpayers time and money by filing frivolous motions like this.
On Tuesday, April 21 four Students Against Sweatshops members went to a “town hall” meeting that UH president Renu Khator was presiding over. As usual Khator’s thuglike security just couldn’t handle students wanting to exercise their first amendment rights. Here’s what happened:
Richard Alderman is a faculty member at the University of Houston’s law school. For many years Mr. Alderman has been pushing a populist image of himself as the “People’s Lawyer.” He writes a weekly column for the Houston Chronicle, the only daily paper in the fourth largest city in the country. He also appears on channel 13 Houston’s ABC affiliate.
Earlier this summer Mr. Alderman took part in a scam on the University community and all taxpayers that was known as the “Apparel Task Force.”
Here’s a quick history: Back in January we got our student government to unanimously pass a bill to join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC, a third party non-profit labor monitor made up of students, college administrators and labor rights experts with 181 university affliates: WRC ) and to sign the Designated Supplier’s Program, (DSP a proposed solution that would designate factories who meet basic labor conditions the right to make university licensed apparel) our president / chancellor Renu Khator set up an appointed “apparel task force” with 5 profs (none of whom ever published on labor rights, sweatshops, corporate responsibility or other related field) 1 staffer and 1 student. We gave a presentation to the “task force” (which they conveniently scheduled at the end of the semester when our college paper stopped publishing) where we laid out the facts and messaged DSP as the solution. We of course video taped our entire presentation and you tubed it.
In the apparel task force’s “report” which documents we obtained revealed Alderman drafted, the task force members claimed “Students Against Sweatshops said that the there likely will be little impact from joining WRC or the DSP.” We of course took issue with their blatant lies and asked 3 times in writing for them to retract and correct their falsehoods. They refused. Read their “report” Task Force report
So this morning we passed out over 300 flyers to attendees of Alderman’s “People’s Law School,” at the U of H law center. Read the flyer: alderman-flier-revised
Well Mr. Alderman and one of his associates were none to happy that we would stand on a public sidewalk and exercise our first amendment rights. Here’s what happened:
Bright and early a couple of us stood outside the law school and handed out the flyers. Everybody thought we were part of the program and gladly took a flyer. One campus cop was sitting in his car nearby. After about 10 minutes a well dressed middle aged man confronted one of our members (we think he was a law professor too) and said what we were was doing was “wrong,” and that our member was “insane.” We just replied we’re standing up for workers rights. He took issue with that and said that we were “vilifying” the people’s lawyer who does so much to “help people.” We replied yeah unless they are garment workers or students working to improve labor conditions. The unknown white male asked what the size of the lawyers house had to do with anything and we said we thought it demonstrated how the people’s lawyer was all about taking for himself and not giving back. Then the unknown white male stomped off in a huff. We thought our flyer comparing wages and living conditions of the People’s Lawyer and UH garment workers in Bangladesh would make these white males more aware of their privilege. It certainly got their attention. Interestingly enough one attendee later told me that us she asked if they would help her fill out a complaint for small claims court and they told her no they didn’t do that. So it seems that the whole event is just an opportunity for lawyers to troll for clients.
A few minutes later the “people’s lawyer” himself came up to us with the campus cop (who of course knows us well) in tow. About that time two more cop cars rolled up. Then Mr. People’s Lawyer claimed he tried to help us. We said lying about our campaign and the DSP doesn’t help anyone. Then he trotted out the tired excuse that no one signed the DSP! We said 45 schools have and that he could look at the WRC’s website and see for himself. Then he slipped up and said that he was “Trying to stop the school from signing the DSP,” he had read the DSP letters from other schools! In a polite as tone as possible we said “We don’t have to listen to you and please get away from us,” and continued to hand out fliers. Mr. People’s Lawyer didn’t know what to do and then the cop said to him “What do you want to do?” Mr. People’s Lawyer said its OK. I guess ordering a cop to arrest students for passing out fliers would have been too much for the people’s lawyer to live down later. Then we told him if he wanted to speak to us he could make an appointment. He didn’t like that too much and stomped off.
Tell the People’s Lawyer to stop fronting for a corrupt UH adminstration and tell the truth about the university and their oppression of garment workers: You can email him here: alderman@uh.edu or call him at his office: 713.743.2227.
On July 29, 2008 our founder Timothy J. O’Brien filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the University of Houston. The lawsuit alleges first amendment free speech violations and retaliation. The University of Houston has filed numerous false disciplinary charges against O’Brien for his exercise of his free speech rights. O’Brien is a PhD candidate in the history department and the suit alleges that the history department cut his graduate funding for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years in retaliation for his activism on and off campus.
Read the story the college paper wrote about it: lawsuit story
