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Update: Here’s my review and analysis of the case., and here’s my take on Sotomayor’s perspective on race and gender in the judiciary.
Back in January I reported on the case of a high school student who was barred from running for student government after she referred to school administrators as “douchebags” on a LiveJournal blog.
Now comes word that federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, widely believed to be on Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist, issued a ruling in that case a year ago — and it wasn’t a good one.
According to media studies prof Paul Levinson, Sotomayor was part of a panel that ruled against the student on the grounds that high schools have a responsibility to instill “shared values,” including a “proper respect for authority,” in students.
Ouch.
I haven’t had a chance to read that court’s ruling in full yet, but I’ll update this post when I do.
The Iowa Daily published a front-page article yesterday on the arrest records of the members of the University of Iowa Student Government.
The article, which was based on public records searches, reported that ten UISG members “have criminal charges other than traffic violations,” mostly citations for underage drinking or public intoxication.
The article names four of the ten offenders, providing details of the records of each:
- The SGUI vice president, who picked up a public intoxication charge last year.
- A senator who has seven infractions on his record, five of them for public intoxication.
- A senator with six infractions, including two charges for using false ID to obtain alcohol.
- A senator with two underage drinking charges and one for theft.
Not all of these charges have resulted in convictions or pleas — the article notes that at least one case is currently pending.
The article suggests that this information raises a “question for UI officials — along with current and former UISG members” as to “how much those tickets affect representatives’ credibility and ability to lead the students.”
A former medical student is claiming that he was suspended from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey for describing himself as a “white, African, American.”
Paulo Serodio is of European descent, was born in Mozambique, and is a citizen of the United States, so each of the components of his self-identification is literally accurate, but he says that students and staff at the university objected to it.
Serodio claims that he was harassed and assaulted after making the comments, and his lawyer told the Associated Press that “directly” as a result of the comments he was suspended from the school. Serodio is now suing.
This story is already blowing up in the right-wing blogosphere, for obvious reasons, but as far as I can tell the AP article is the only source on it so far, and I have to say it doesn’t feel complete to me.
We don’t have the whole story on this yet, and I bet you ten bucks that the full version is going to be more interesting than the one we have now.
1 pm update: I’ve found a copy of the complaint. More soon.
Police at Northwestern University will no longer notify federal authorities when they encounter suspected undocumented immigrants except in cases involving felonies or human trafficking.
Student groups had been pressing for a new policy since NU police stopped Ramiro Sanchez-Zepeda on suspicion of DWI on April 26 and turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement when he was unable to produce a driver’s license or visa.
Students had planned a Thursday rally to push for the reform, but NU police chief Bruce Lewis requested a meeting with student leaders on Tuesday and announced the new policy on Wednesday.
The planned protest rally was recast as a celebration of the change in policy and a call to continued activism.
A thousand students from Trisakti University marched on Indonesia’s presidential palace yesterday to demand an investigation of the murder of four student activists ten years ago.
On May 12, 1998, four students at Triskati University were shot and killed by snipers during a demonstration against the country’s Suharto government. The US State Department later concluded that government agents had committed the murders.
The killings sparked a wave of riots that grew in intensity as time went on. Military and political forces are widely believed to have been active in the rioting, in which thousands of people were killed and raped. The riots led to the resignation of President Suharto on May 21.
studentactivism.net 
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