COURT RULES AGAINST BAN ON ADVOCACY.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A state agency's ban on religious advocacy in the workplace - while employees remained free to chat about politics or football - unconstitutionally squelched squelch v. squelched, squelch·ing, squelch·es v.tr. 1. To crush by or as if by trampling; squash. 2. religious speech, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The ban was imposed by a division of the state Department of Education in 1989 after a computer analyst was suspended sus·pend v. sus·pend·ed, sus·pend·ing, sus·pends v.tr. 1. To bar for a period from a privilege, office, or position, usually as a punishment: suspend a student from school. for five days for putting Christian inscriptions on work documents and a computer program. Besides advocacy, it prohibited pro·hib·it tr.v. pro·hib·it·ed, pro·hib·it·ing, pro·hib·its 1. To forbid by authority: Smoking is prohibited in most theaters. See Synonyms at forbid. 2. the display of any religious material outside an employee's office or cubicle. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was no evidence that any employee's religious advocacy had disrupted the workplace or had been interpreted as a state endorsement of religion by members of the public, who have little contact with the division. A ban on religious advocacy might be justified for teachers in the classroom, or for employees who address the public in an official capacity, but is an unreasonable restriction on private employee conversations, said Judge Stephen Reinhardt Stephen Roy Reinhardt (born March 27, 1931 in New York, New York) is a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California. He was appointed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. in the 3-0 decision. ``Allowing employees of the Child Nutrition and Food Distribution Division to discuss whatever subject they choose at work, be it religion or football, may incidentally benefit religion (or football), but it would not give the appearance of a state endorsement,'' Reinhardt said. |
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