Wednesday, April 22, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-franken-comcast-time-warner-deal-creates-anti-competitive-behemoth/

Sen. Franken: Comcast-Time Warner deal creates anti-competitive "behemoth"
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
April 22, 2015

Video – Franken speaking.

Ahead of a Justice Department meeting with Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) to evaluate their proposed merger, some senators are launching a campaign to effectively block the deal.

Senator Al Franken, D-Minnesota, has been an outspoken voice against the marriage of the two cable and internet giants.

"This is a merger which would create a behemoth that would be anti-competitive and [it's] not in the public interest," Franken said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning." "What this would mean to consumers is higher prices, less choice, and -- if it's even possible -- worse service."

Comcast has promoted the deal by touting it as providing more choice for consumers. But the Minnesota senator shot down that argument, saying the merger would instead create a "giant company, unprecedented in size."

"This would be less choice, less competition," Franken said. "What we need is more competition if you want higher speeds."

The Minnesota lawmaker wrote a letter Tuesday that urged Attorney General Holder and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Tom Wheeler to reject the proposed merger. Five other senators signed on to the letter, including regulatory hawk Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. The senators say in the letter that they've heard from consumers, companies and advocacy groups who all fear that the Comcast-TWC deal "would harm competition across several different markets and would not serve the public interest." The Justice Department and the FCC are the two federal agencies in charge of policing anti-trust laws.

Justice Department lawyers may recommend blocking the deal between the two companies, according to reports by Bloomberg News and other media outlets. They are concerned that the merger could give the new entity between 35 percent and 50 percent of the U.S. broadband internet market. The Justice Department could file a suit to prevent the deal, if they deem the merger too anti-competitive.

Franken is hopeful that the deal will not pass muster with the regulators.

"I think now the odds are they will be rejected," the Minnesota senator said, pointing to the support of his five colleagues in the Senate.

Comcast, which announced the $45.2 billion offer in February last year, would gain more than 30 million subscribers and nearly a third of the paid television market. The company has been hesitant to address the reports about the Justice Department's disapproval of the deal.

"We continue to believe that our transaction with Time Warner Cable will bring substantial benefits to consumers without any competitive harms," Comcast said in a statement on Friday. "We will continue to engage in our productive discussions with the government and do not see any value in commenting on rumors and speculation."



https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws

Guide to Antitrust Laws

Free and open markets are the foundation of a vibrant economy. Aggressive competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers — both individuals and businesses — the benefits of lower prices, higher quality products and services, more choices, and greater innovation. The FTC's competition mission is to enforce the rules of the competitive marketplace — the antitrust laws. These laws promote vigorous competition and protect consumers from anticompetitive mergers and business practices. The FTC's Bureau of Competition, working in tandem with the Bureau of Economics, enforces the antitrust laws for the benefit of consumers.

The Bureau of Competition has developed a variety of resources to help explain its work. For an overview of the types of matters investigated by the Bureau, read Competition Counts. This Guide to the Antitrust Laws contains a more in-depth discussion of competition issues for those with specific questions about the antitrust laws. From the menu on the left, you will find Fact Sheets on a variety of competition topics, with examples of cases and Frequently Asked Questions. Within each topic you will find links to more detailed guidance materials developed by the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice.




“Comcast has promoted the deal by touting it as providing more choice for consumers. But the Minnesota senator shot down that argument, saying the merger would instead create a "giant company, unprecedented in size." "This would be less choice, less competition," Franken said. "What we need is more competition if you want higher speeds." The Minnesota lawmaker wrote a letter Tuesday that urged Attorney General Holder and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Tom Wheeler to reject the proposed merger. Five other senators signed on to the letter, including regulatory hawk Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. The senators say in the letter that they've heard from consumers, companies and advocacy groups who all fear that the Comcast-TWC deal "would harm competition across several different markets and would not serve the public interest." The Justice Department and the FCC are the two federal agencies in charge of policing anti-trust laws. …. They are concerned that the merger could give the new entity between 35 percent and 50 percent of the U.S. broadband internet market. …. "We continue to believe that our transaction with Time Warner Cable will bring substantial benefits to consumers without any competitive harms," Comcast said in a statement on Friday.”

I am generally against businesses that are too large. Our economy tends to be ruled by those huge entities with negative results. American car manufacturers have tended not to gear their car designs to those who wanted more safety and better gas mileage. Now American car companies are losing out to Honda and Toyota and other foreign manufacturers, so what is the great benefit to them in the end? In 2008 the bottom of the US economy almost fell out and the government tried to help. They chose to give more money to the largest banks on the grounds that they were “too big to fail,” in other words they would cause serious damage if they failed. They didn't help citizens by extending their mortgages, however. So the Middle Class has more of less imploded as a result, while the “big boys” have increased in size and power. That was not a good result either. Likewise, I have no faith that concentrating up to 50% of the Internet under the control of Comcast and Time-Warner will improve anything other than their “bottom lines.” I'm glad to see Franken and Warren and others putting up a fight about it. Too often a fair and honest voice is not heard over the ultraconservative and uber-powerful loudspeakers of the Republican Party.

The section above which I took from the government FTC site on anti-trust laws seems to me that it should apply in cases like this. From that article comes this excerpt – “Free and open markets are the foundation of a vibrant economy. Aggressive competition among sellers in an open marketplace gives consumers — both individuals and businesses — the benefits of lower prices, higher quality products and services, more choices, and greater innovation. The FTC's competition mission is to enforce the rules of the competitive marketplace — the antitrust laws.”





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/22/401472630/hungary-joins-poland-in-condemnation-of-fbi-chiefs-holocaust-remarks

Hungary Joins Poland In Condemnation Of FBI Chief's Holocaust Remarks
Krishnadev Calamur
April 22, 2015

Photograph – Hungary has joined Poland in protesting FBI Director James Comey's remarks about the Holocaust last week.
Evan Vucci/AP

We told you earlier this weekabout the anger in Poland over remarks made by the head of the FBI linking that country to the Holocaust. Hungary, which James Comey also mentioned in his speech, has now joined in the protests against the comments. The FBI chief, in an interview Tuesday, said he has no apology.

"The words of the FBI director bear witness to astounding insensitivity and impermissible superficiality," the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We do not accept from anyone the formulation of such a generalization and defamation."

In a speech last week at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, a version of which was published in The Washington Post, Comey called the Holocaust "the most significant event in world history." But it was his remarks about who participated in the killing of Jews that drew most of the attention. Comey said:

"In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That's what people do. And that should truly frighten us."

Poland summoned Stephen Mull, the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw, to the Foreign Ministry on Sunday to demand an apology.

Mull later told reporters that suggesting any country other than Nazi Germany was responsible for the Holocaust "is harmful and offensive." But he added: "Director Comey certainly did not mean to suggest that Poland was in any way responsible for those crimes."

Comey himself addressed the controversy on Tuesday when he was asked by Tennessee's WATE-TV if he had an apology to those offended by his remarks.

"I don't," he said. "Except I didn't say Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In a way I wish very much that I hadn't mentioned any countries because it's distracted some folks from my point.

"I worry a little bit in some countries that point has gotten lost. There is no doubt that people in Poland heroically resisted the Nazis, and some people heroically protected the Jews, but there's also no doubt that in every country occupied by the Nazis, there were people collaborating with the Nazis."

The issue is a sensitive one in Poland, which was angered by President Obama's remarks in 2012 when he referred to a "Polish death camp." The White House called that a "misstatement" that it regretted.

But as Abraham Foxman, a Holocaust survivor from Poland who now heads the Anti-Defamation League, notes, the issue is more complicated. In an essay on MSNBC, Foxman says that a Polish Catholic woman saved his life when he was a boy. He adds:

"Poles have a right to set the record straight about their history when it is distorted or conflated with that of the Nazis and Germany. But Mr. Comey was not wrong in what was his essential message: As evil as the Nazis were, their phantasmagoric mission to destroy the Jewish people was made much easier because the public in most European countries, Poland included, too often acted as bystanders and sometimes even as accomplices."

Writing in The Post, Laurence Weinbaum, director of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, called Comey's remarks "carelessly drafted, though presumably well-intentioned." But he says:

"Thanks to the efforts of Polish researchers, we now know that more Poles participated in the destruction and despoliation of their Jewish neighbors than was previously believed. Many Poles saw the removal of the Jews from Poland as the one beneficial byproduct of an otherwise grievous occupation. For the least scrupulous local people, the Holocaust was also an El Dorado-like opportunity for self-enrichment and gratification. For some, this temptation was irresistible, and they did not recoil from committing acts of murder, rape and larceny — not always orchestrated by the Germans."

The Associated Press reports that Frank Spula, head of the Polish American Congress, an organization that represents at least 10 million Americans of Polish descent, said he would expect Comey to resign over his remarks.




“In a speech last week at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, a version of which was published in The Washington Post, Comey called the Holocaust "the most significant event in world history." But it was his remarks about who participated in the killing of Jews that drew most of the attention. Comey said: "In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That's what people do. And that should truly frighten us." …. Mull later told reporters that suggesting any country other than Nazi Germany was responsible for the Holocaust "is harmful and offensive." But he added: "Director Comey certainly did not mean to suggest that Poland was in any way responsible for those crimes." Comey himself addressed the controversy on Tuesday when he was asked by Tennessee's WATE-TV if he had an apology to those offended by his remarks. "I don't," he said. "Except I didn't say Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. In a way I wish very much that I hadn't mentioned any countries because it's distracted some folks from my point. …. "I worry a little bit in some countries that point has gotten lost. There is no doubt that people in Poland heroically resisted the Nazis, and some people heroically protected the Jews, but there's also no doubt that in every country occupied by the Nazis, there were people collaborating with the Nazis." …. But Mr. Comey was not wrong in what was his essential message: As evil as the Nazis were, their phantasmagoric mission to destroy the Jewish people was made much easier because the public in most European countries, Poland included, too often acted as bystanders and sometimes even as accomplices." …. "Thanks to the efforts of Polish researchers, we now know that more Poles participated in the destruction and despoliation of their Jewish neighbors than was previously believed. Many Poles saw the removal of the Jews from Poland as the one beneficial byproduct of an otherwise grievous occupation.”

The greatest sadness that WWII brings to my mind is indeed the breadth of the hatred that all Christian governments have expressed against the Jews, and I agree with Comey. He didn't say that Poland initiated the holocaust, but that Polish Christians in too many cases participated in it. All modern nations, chastened as they have been by history, should stand up and admit that, from their local Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian and other cultures, as well as from that of the Nazis, came the horror that was the Holocaust. At this time neo-fascists and other highly “conservative” citizens are emerging throughout Western culture, including in particular the US, along with an alarming rise in anti-Jewish feeling again as in the 1930's. The news articles in the last year have had quite a few such stories. That was a time of economic depression in Europe as well as the US, and the people who are under heavy pressures in their daily life are likely to look for a scapegoat – the Jews are always convenient. Those modern day people need to be confronted and punished for every time they light a fire to a Jewish synagogue or do any damaging thing of the sort. Yesterday's blog has an article on Oskar Groening who is being tried for murder because of his concentration camp participation, though he wasn't charged with a killing, just lending aid to the SS. His role was to collect money and valuables from the homes of Jews as they were sent in cattle cars to one of the camps, so he was not guiltless.

That article points up the number of local people who very courageously helped and protected Jews, so the collaboration with the Nazi horde was by no means universal. I think it is very probably true also that many who didn't help Jews also didn't purposely hurt them, but were understandably “afraid” to step forward and speak out against what was going on. Unfortunately, lack of courage is not a virtue and the result of it is very likely to be evil.

This segment is from my comments on that day: “The degree of blind loyalty which is mandated within the group, it seems to me, is one of the main factors which will determine how deeply evil their actions will be. Groening almost certainly would have been killed if he had tried to obstruct the running of the death camp. The Anne Frank and Oskar Schindler stories are well-known. Schindler was not killed by the Nazis and neither was Miep Gies who along with others sheltered Anne Frank and a several other Jews. The fascinating Wikipedia article called “Individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust” discusses the 24,356 civilians who lent aid to Jews. That group are all named as Righteous among the Nations and honored by The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority and the Israeli Supreme Court.”





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-police-anthony-batts-officers-freddie-gray-arrest-not-out-of-control/

Baltimore PD chief: Cops in Gray arrest "not out of control"
CBS/AP
April 22, 2015

Photograph – A Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 file photo shows Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts.  AP PHOTO/MATT ROURKE

BALTIMORE - Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said in an interview Wednesday there is still a lot even he doesn't know about the arrest and subsequent death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray last week in police custody.

There is a now widely seen video of Gray's arrest, showing him screaming in pain as he is half-dragged, half-carried to a police van. He was later taken to the hospital with severe spinal injuries that ultimately killed him.

Batts, addressing the video in an interview with CBS Baltimore, said it still leaves many questions.

"What I don't know is what happened before that filming," Batts said. "I don't know if someone put hands on him. I don't know if he jumped over a fence and may have hurt himself and injured himself."

The police commissioner said he's seen other cases of police abuse, and this one appears at first to be different.

"What I do know with little evidence that we have is that when I've looked at these cases before, officers who are out of control remain out of control. The officers that I saw there, were not out of control. They weren't causing him any pain in that filming," Batts said. "And when they lifted him up they grabbed him under his armpits and they moved him as best they can."

Demonstrators have been pouring into the streets of Baltimore in the last few days as news of the incident has spread. Tuesday's demonstration marked the beginning of a week of protests and rallies planned across the city.

The Justice Department said earlier in the day that it has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal spinal-cord injury under mysterious circumstances after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van.

At the site of Gray's arrest, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered to remember Gray, who friends and relatives say was kind, funny and generous, and call for police reform.

"I want this to be a sign to the Baltimore Police Department that this is not an act of surrender," said Pastor Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple, one of the rally's organizers, as he called on those in the crowd to raise their hands. "It's a sign of strength, of one unity and one commitment that we will not rest until we get justice for Freddie Gray.

"The world is watching," Bryant said. "The world is watching, and the world needs to see that black Baltimore is unified."

Gray was taken into custody April 12 after police "made eye contact" with him and another man in an area known for drug activity, police said, and both men started running. Gray was handcuffed and put in a transport van. At some point during his roughly 30-minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray's legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming "irate," police said

Batts said Gray asked for an inhaler and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital.

Gray died Sunday - a week after his arrest - of what police described as "a significant spinal injury."

Exactly how he was injured and what happened in the van is still not known.

Demonstrators called for answers, accountability and a change to how they say people in inner-city Baltimore are treated by officers patrolling the neighborhood.

Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, "Convict Freddie's killers," that listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local and federal authorities investigate the death. Jackson, who is black, said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police.

"They're hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us," said Jackson, 53.

Another demonstration is planned for Wednesday evening at the site of Gray's arrest, and on Thursday protesters are expected to gather outside City Hall.




“Batts, addressing the video in an interview with CBS Baltimore, said it still leaves many questions. "What I don't know is what happened before that filming," Batts said. "I don't know if someone put hands on him. I don't know if he jumped over a fence and may have hurt himself and injured himself." The police commissioner said he's seen other cases of police abuse, and this one appears at first to be different. "What I do know with little evidence that we have is that when I've looked at these cases before, officers who are out of control remain out of control. The officers that I saw there, were not out of control. They weren't causing him any pain in that filming," Batts said. "And when they lifted him up they grabbed him under his armpits and they moved him as best they can." …. At the site of Gray's arrest, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered to remember Gray, who friends and relatives say was kind, funny and generous, and call for police reform. "I want this to be a sign to the Baltimore Police Department that this is not an act of surrender," said Pastor Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple, one of the rally's organizers, as he called on those in the crowd to raise their hands. "It's a sign of strength, of one unity and one commitment that we will not rest until we get justice for Freddie Gray. …. Demonstrators called for answers, accountability and a change to how they say people in inner-city Baltimore are treated by officers patrolling the neighborhood. Pricilla Jackson carried a sign reading, "Convict Freddie's killers," that listed the names of the six officers suspended with pay while local and federal authorities investigate the death. Jackson, who is black, said she wants Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to know that she and others have been brutalized by police. "They're hurting us when they throw us to the ground and kick us and punch us," said Jackson, 53. “At some point during his roughly 30-minute ride, the van was stopped and Gray's legs were shackled when an officer felt he was becoming "irate," police said Batts said Gray asked for an inhaler and then several times asked for medical care. He was eventually rushed to a hospital. Gray died Sunday - a week after his arrest - of what police described as "a significant spinal injury."

An article yesterday stated that Gray's head was 80% decapitated. That was more than a “spinal injury.” Did somebody take his knife out of his pocket and cut him in that manner? I doubt that he could have done that to himself. I'm glad to see that there are significant demonstrations in Baltimore. They have had a reputation in the past for interracial problems. I'll collect other articles on this subject when I see them.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2015/04/22/401521322/obama-says-elizabeth-warren-is-wrong-on-trade

Obama: Elizabeth Warren Is 'Wrong' On Trade
Domenico Montanaro
April 22, 2015

Photograph – President Obama talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at the East Asia Summit in Myanmar in November. Obama is trying to strike a 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would include Malaysia.
Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

A full-fledged Democratic trade war has broken out.

"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," President Obama said Tuesday night in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, referring to liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Warren and the progressive left, scarred by trade deals past like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, have launched a vocal fight against granting the president so-called "fast-track" authority to negotiate a 12-country Pacific trade deal.

"Are you ready to fight?" Warren said at a rally April 15 with labor leaders and Vermont liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders standing beside her. "No more secret deals. No more special deals for multi-national corporations. Are you ready to fight? Are you ready to fight any more deals that say we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everyone else behind? Are you ready to fight that?"

Senate Democrats' point man, Harry Reid – normally a staunch Obama ally — has joined the "Hell no" caucus on trade.

"I have never, ever ... supported a trade agreement, and I'm not going to start now," Reid saidTuesday. "So the answer is not only no, but hell no."

Obama says progressives have it all wrong. He said "understandably" that some in labor and on the left would be "suspicious" because of past problems with NAFTA.

"But my point is," Obama said on MSNBC, "don't fight the last war. Wait and see what we actually have in this deal before you make those judgments."

He called the Trans-Pacific Partnership "the most progressive framework for trade we have ever had." Obama argued that it is "unprecedented" and has "strong, enforceable" labor and environmental standards and "fixes a lot of the problems that you had in things like NAFTA."

In trying to win Democratic support, any deal would be subjected to a months-long review by the public and Congress. But because of those delays, as the New York Times points out, "final consideration of the trade pact could fall to the next president, just as the North American Free Trade Agreement, completed by President George H. W. Bush, was passed under his successor, Bill Clinton."

Ironically, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, that could mean she would be put in the same position as her husband. In 2000 and 2007, Clinton lamented that the Clinton administration "inherited" NAFTA.

"What happened to NAFTA, I think, was we inherited an agreement that we didn't get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion," she argued when running for the Senate in New York in 2000.

Then, again, when running for president in 2007, she said, "NAFTA was inherited by the Clinton administration. I believe in the general principles it represented, but what we have learned is that we have to drive a tougher bargain."

Clinton had argued as Obama's secretary of state that TPP did forge that tougher bargain. She called it the "gold standard in trade agreements."

As she launches her second bid for the president, with a much clearer primary field but trying not to irritate key progressive pillars like labor unions, she is now hedging in her support.

"Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security," she said in New Hampshire Tuesday.

Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, is expected to push the Democratic field (read: Clinton) on the issue of trade.

The question is what would she do as president? She's hoping to skate through the primary without having to worry being sidetracked by trade – or her past statements on it.

But if she becomes president, and if she's faced with signing or setting aside TPP, will she side with the left or make the argument Obama is now making alone.




“A full-fledged Democratic trade war has broken out. "I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," President Obama said Tuesday night in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, referring to liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren and the progressive left, scarred by trade deals past like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, have launched a vocal fight against granting the president so-called "fast-track" authority to negotiate a 12-country Pacific trade deal. "Are you ready to fight?" Warren said at a rally April 15 with labor leaders and Vermont liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders standing beside her. "No more secret deals. No more special deals for multi-national corporations. Are you ready to fight? Are you ready to fight any more deals that say we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everyone else behind? Are you ready to fight that?" …. "But my point is," Obama said on MSNBC, "don't fight the last war. Wait and see what we actually have in this deal before you make those judgments." He called the Trans-Pacific Partnership "the most progressive framework for trade we have ever had." Obama argued that it is "unprecedented" and has "strong, enforceable" labor and environmental standards and "fixes a lot of the problems that you had in things like NAFTA." …. In 2000 and 2007, Clinton lamented that the Clinton administration "inherited" NAFTA. "What happened to NAFTA, I think, was we inherited an agreement that we didn't get everything we should have got out of it in my opinion," she argued when running for the Senate in New York in 2000. Then, again, when running for president in 2007, she said, "NAFTA was inherited by the Clinton administration. I believe in the general principles it represented, but what we have learned is that we have to drive a tougher bargain." Clinton had argued as Obama's secretary of state that TPP did forge that tougher bargain. She called it the "gold standard in trade agreements."

“The question is what would she do as president? She's hoping to skate through the primary without having to worry being sidetracked by trade – or her past statements on it. But if she becomes president, and if she's faced with signing or setting aside TPP, will she side with the left or make the argument Obama is now making alone.” I am concerned partly by the allegation from liberals that the trade deal hasn't been available for reading, so how does Clinton know the TPP solves the worst problem that NAFTA has? As for Obama's staunch defense of it, I don't so much doubt his status as a liberal – though there are people who claim that both Democrats and Republicans are equally indebted to the Koch brothers et al. I personally don't trust the TPP at all after what NAFTA did to the job situation in the US. The difference between the the Middle and Lower economic classes and the rich is that they don't have a 6 million dollar financial cushion in their bank accounts. They have to work, and save for their retirement. What I fear about Obama's love for TPP is that it isn't because is it really very good, but because it belongs to him. It's like a pet pitt bull which one day runs after a kid and cripples him with those very powerful jaws. Most of the time the owner of the dog will talk about how gentle it has always been. I am not impressed.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/22/401508764/transgender-teen-wins-case-to-wear-makeup-in-dmv-photo

Transgender Teen Wins Case To Wear Makeup In DMV Photo
KATE PARKINSON-MORGAN
APRIL 22, 2015

Photograph – Chase Culpepper, 17, was told by DMV officials that she was not allowed to wear makeup in her license photo. The transgender teen sued the federal government for sex discrimination and violating her free speech rights.
Courtesy of Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund

Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in South Carolina will now be allowed to take license photos that reflect their everyday appearance, following a settlement announced this morning in a lawsuit filed by a transgender teen.

Chase Culpepper, 17, filed the federal lawsuit last September, accusing the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles of sex discrimination and violating her free speech. In the spring of 2014, she arrived at the DMV office in Anderson, S.C. wearing mascara and eye shadow, ready to take her driver's license photo. She says department officials promptly told her she had to remove the cosmetics before taking the photo because they were a "disguise."

Culpepper, who now identifies as a transgender young woman but used male pronouns at the time, says she often wore makeup and women's clothing.

According to Reuters:

"They let her wear pearl earrings but demanded she remove the mascara and eye shadow she regularly wore before they would take her photo."

The department later cited a 2009 rule that prohibited applicants from "purposely altering his or her appearance so that the photo would misrepresent his or her identity." In response, Culpepper filed a lawsuit, calling the policy "unconstitutionally vague and overbroad," because it allowed DMV officials to make "arbitrary and capricious" decisions based on their personal biases about gender presentation.

Under the terms of the settlement, the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles agreed to change its policy to allow people seeking drivers' licenses to be photographed as they regularly present themselves, even if their appearance does not match the officials' expectations of how the applicant should look. The department also promised to send Culpepper a written apology and train its employees in how to treat transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in professional settings.

"I am thrilled with the outcome of my lawsuit," Culpepper said in a statement. "My clothing and makeup reflect who I am. From day one, all I wanted was to get a driver's license that looks like me."

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New York-based group representing Culpepper, received similar requests for legal support after news spread about her case, The Los Angeles Times reports:

"Michael Silverman, executive director of the New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented Chase, said he hoped the settlement would lead other agencies with similar policies to change them.

"Shortly after the details of Chase's case became public last year, Silverman said his agency received similar complaints from transgender men and women in other states.

"The advocacy group is negotiating with the West Virginia DMV after three transgender women there were ordered to remove wigs and fake eyelashes when having their driver's license photos taken."

"Departments of motor vehicles and other government agencies cannot restrict the freedom of transgender people to look like their true selves," Silverman told The Times.

Once the changes go into effect in May, Culpepper says she plans to take a new driver's license photo with makeup.




“Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in South Carolina will now be allowed to take license photos that reflect their everyday appearance, following a settlement announced this morning in a lawsuit filed by a transgender teen. Chase Culpepper, 17, filed the federal lawsuit last September, accusing the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles of sex discrimination and violating her free speech. In the spring of 2014, she arrived at the DMV office in Anderson, S.C. wearing mascara and eye shadow, ready to take her driver's license photo. She says department officials promptly told her she had to remove the cosmetics before taking the photo because they were a "disguise." .... The department later cited a 2009 rule that prohibited applicants from "purposely altering his or her appearance so that the photo would misrepresent his or her identity." In response, Culpepper filed a lawsuit, calling the policy "unconstitutionally vague and overbroad," because it allowed DMV officials to make "arbitrary and capricious" decisions based on their personal biases about gender presentation. Under the terms of the settlement, the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles agreed to change its policy to allow people seeking drivers' licenses to be photographed as they regularly present themselves, even if their appearance does not match the officials' expectations of how the applicant should look. The department also promised to send Culpepper a written apology and train its employees in how to treat transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in professional settings.”

This looks like a big case. The plaintiff's argument is very impressive and goes right to the point. I personally have never been even tempted to dress like a boy or become sexually involved with a girl, but I was a non-conformist. I wore pants most of the time as I do still, did not keep my mouth shut in the presence of men to avoid giving offense at my (shameful) brashness, take joy in constantly shopping for more new clothes, only play with dolls, or any other of those things. In 1970 I joined the National Organization for Women and marched for abortion rights. The range of “rebellion” against the prevailing culture varies, but I stand behind them all, cross-dressers, transgenders, gays and lesbians, and simply women like Hillary Clinton who never is too shy or timid to speak her mind. That's how women need to be, and then go on to rear both their boys and girls in a way that allows them both to be free individuals as well.