Well that’s putting words into my mouth, isn’t it? No, I don’t think sexual harassment is acceptable, but I also don’t think everything unacceptable is grounds for expulsion.
from Jonathan Turley, law prof, on Moore and Franken:
Glad Hanna brought up Title IX. A lot of this “assault lite” would not be considered wanted touching or otherwise acceptable.
I think Roy Moore’s big mistake is that he should be running for a house seat./sarcasm.
https://www.politico.com/story/2011/06/sex-scandals-that-still-haunt-house-056548?o=0
Also we have a great country but the worst political class in American history.
It can be easier to get elected to the house in general… you can get the benefit of a gerrymandered district. And they don’t get quite as much scrutiny; there is (usually) a level of gravitas that senate candidates need, house not so much.
It appears that Gloria Allred is refusing to release the yearbook for forensic examination, putting the veracity of the only piece of physical evidence in doubt. What’s next for Al Franken and his merry crew of congresspeople? This is getting to be fun watching the edifice crumble.
Allred says she’d release it for a Senate hearing, hasn’t she?
“How would a college view such accusations, if they were found to be true? What would the punishment be? A slap on the wrist? A suspension? Surely not expulsion.”
I’ve seen colleges do some crazy stuff, but not expulsion for an unwanted kiss plus an unshared disrespectful photo with no touching in it. The closest I have seen was a respondent being kicked out of campus housing because the complainant was crying in her dorm room and the respondent hugged her without asking. The existing Franken stuff is stern-talk-from-the-RA level.
De minimis non curat lex. I do not favor single-sanction justice systems, whether we’re talking about colleges like UVA or the U.S. Senate. I also oppose life imprisonment for jaywalking, which doesn’t mean that I think ignoring traffic laws is ok.
“Allred says she’d release it for a Senate hearing, hasn’t she?”
Yes, she did.
“Allred is refusing to release the yearbook for forensic examination”
Documents belong to clients, not lawyers. But why should people on one side of a dispute offer access to documents while getting nothing in return? Is Judge Moore volunteering to share his diary?
Discovery is supposed to give both sides an equal chance to examine records. If and when there’s an actual proceeding, like a Senate investigation, then both sides will be subject to discovery requests.
The objective is derail Roy Moore’s senate campaign, so I think that this is going to a last attempt to unseat him if he gets elected. Who knows what will happen with Al Franken over the weekend?
@Hanna, just a quick thank you for weighing in on this, and other law-related topics. I always learn so much from you!
When I saw the picture, I also thought it was a joke, not that it’s ok. But Tweeden also accuses him of French kissing and groping her. That makes me think there must be more than the photo. The photo by itself bothers me only a bit but French kissing and groping is true, he is guilty of something not nothing.
It was part of a skit. You might think it was in poor taste but not worthy of her revenge tactics.
This isn’t “skit” - “put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.”
Performers learn ways to fake a kiss, tears, rage, etc. None of that needs a tongue down your throat. That’s personal, not even visible to the audience.
If someone moved to kiss you, in some ok context, would you think tongue was a normal part if it? Nope. Why is this woman supposed to put up with it? (Because you don’t like something about her?) If your daughter were part of a play, would you say, it’s ok, honey, it’s funny?
Enough to bring him down? I don’t know.
To me it speaks to his character that once she told him off, he started bullying her for the rest of the USO tour, culminating in the photo.
I think it is a point in favor of his character that he has apologized and she has accepted it. Name another one of these guys accused of abusing and harassing women who has done so. Deny, deny, deny.
Louis CK is the only one in this current wave who has admitted it and apologized to victims that I can think of. The type of behavior was also more disgusting.
^ He is not the only one anymore.
Was that an apology or was he bragging?