December, 17 2009, 12:51pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
(202) 466-3234,Joe Conn,Rob Boston,Sandhya Bathija
Pennsylvania County Agrees to Remove Religious Symbols From Courthouse Lawn
Luzerne County Courthouse Display of Nativity Scene and Menorah Violated Constitution, Civil Liberties Groups Advised
WILKES-BARRE, Pa.
The Luzerne County Commissioners have agreed to remove two separate
religious displays - a creche and a menorah - from the lawn of the
Luzerne County Courthouse after receiving a letter from Americans
United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
In the Dec. 11 letter, the two civil liberties groups informed the
county that the displays are an unconstitutional government endorsement
of religion.
"The reason the law forbids government endorsement of religion is
because, in the words of Justice O'Connor, 'endorsement sends a message
to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the
political community, and an accompanying message to adherent that they
are insiders, favored members of the political community,'" said Mary
Catherine Roper, staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "The
courthouse - the symbol of the law in Luzerne County - is an especially
important place to respect the diversity of beliefs in our community."
Added the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director,
"I expect to see religious symbols at houses of worship, not government
buildings that serve Americans of all faiths and none. I am pleased
that the Luzerne County Commissioners realized that these displays
violated the Constitution and took action to remove them."
The creche and menorah are owned and maintained by Luzerne County.
The civil liberties groups were alerted to the presence of the
religious emblems by local members of the Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA)
Freethought Society, including Justin Vacula and Rodney Collins.
"I'm happy the Luzerne County Courthouse will be taking down its
religious displays and will no longer communicate a message of
supporting religion to every person passing the courthouse," said
Vacula. "The Luzerne County Courthouse is now a place for everyone."
The law on public displays is clear, according to the letter sent to
the Luzerne County Commissioners on Dec. 11. A government entity may
only erect religious symbols if they are part of a broader secular
display. The religious elements cannot stand alone, as they do in this
case. Alternatively, the government may also declare a space an open
public forum, where any individual or group is welcome to put up a
display.
NEPA Freethought Society is represented by Roper and Witold Walczak
of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and Ayesha N. Khan and Richard B. Katskee
of Americans United.
More information about the issue, including photos and a copy of the December 11 letter, is available at: https://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/northeastpennsylvaniafreet.htm
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
LATEST NEWS
FBI Investigating Vehicle Explosion at US-Canada Border Crossing
The explosion took place on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge.
Nov 22, 2023
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
The FBI said it is investigating a vehicle explosion that occurred Wednesday at a checkpoint on the Rainbow Bridge between the U.S. and Canada.
The explosion, which took place on the U.S. side of the bridge, led authorities to shut down all western New York bridge crossings into the U.S., NBC Newsreported.
In a statement, the FBI's Buffalo Field Office said it is "investigating a vehicle explosion at the Rainbow Bridge" and "coordinating with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners in this investigation."
"As this situation is very fluid, that's all we can say at this time," the statement added.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was briefed on the incident and is "closely monitoring the situation."
Four unnamed law enforcement sources told NBC News that no explosive devices were found in the vehicle.
"The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed when it hit the [border checkpoint structure], caught on fire, and exploded," the outlet noted.
Earlier, citing unnamed sources, Fox Newsreported that the explosion was an "attempted terrorist attack" and that two people who were in the car were killed and at least one other person was injured.
ABC News, also citing anonymous sources, reported that "investigators have found some sort of suitcase or briefcase on-scene" and "are treating it as a possible explosive device as a precaution and the bomb squad is handling the package."
This story has been updated to include new reporting from NBC News.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Awful News for Humanity': Alarm as Larry Summers Joins OpenAI Board
“There is no greater indication that OpenAI is unserious about the interests of humanity than their elevation of Larry Summers to its board of directors," said one watchdog.
Nov 22, 2023
News that OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman will be returning to the artificial intelligence startup just days after he was ousted by the firm's board of directors was accompanied by the announcement Tuesday of a new initial board consisting of three individuals—one of whom is the Wall Street-friendly economist and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Given Summers' record of fighting tougher regulations for risky financial instruments and—more recently—his incorrect predictions about the trajectory and stubbornness of inflation in the U.S., his elevation to the board of a company whose AI work has profound implications for the future of humanity drew immediate alarm.
The Revolving Door Project, a progressive watchdog group whose research has uncovered Summers' deep corporate ties, called his selection to the OpenAI board "awful news for humanity."
"There is no greater indication that OpenAI is unserious about the interests of humanity than their elevation of Larry Summers to its board of directors," said Jeff Hauser, the group's executive director. "Summers energetically promotes cryptocurrency, inflation hysteria, and himself with equally misplaced ardor."
Economist and journalist Nomi Prins wrote on social media that Summers "holds the top spot of those responsible for the 2008 financial crisis," alluding to his opposition to more strictly regulating financial derivatives that fueled the economic collapse.
"If AI is to be focused on human policy and care, he's a dustbin for deregulation and recklessness," Prins argued. "As president of Harvard in 2005, Summers launched a disgusting tirade on women in math and science and seemed to believe it was based on 'research in behavioral genetics.' You want Larry to be involved with steering AI forward with human consideration?"
"Summers' ascent to the heights of AI should accelerate concerns that AI will be bad for all but the richest and most opportunistic amongst us."
OpenAI's decision to reinstate Altman as CEO under a new board consisting of Summers, former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, and Quora chief executive Adam D'Angelo came less than a week after the previous board removed Altman, sparking an immediate employee revolt.
The chaotic leadership shuffle at the $90 billion company was the culmination of infighting that had been building for more than a year, with some of the tensions surrounding Altman's pursuit of commercial expansion at the potential expense of safety, according toThe New York Times.
"The tension got worse as OpenAI became a mainstream name thanks to its popular ChatGPT chatbot," the Times reported Tuesday. "At one point, Mr. Altman... made a move to push out one of the board's members because he thought a research paper she had co-written was critical of the company. Another member, Ilya Sutskever, thought Mr. Altman was not always being honest when talking with the board. And some board members worried that Mr. Altman was too focused on expansion while they wanted to balance that growth with AI safety."
Wirednoted last week that "disagreements over the issue of prioritizing safe development of AI previously led several prominent OpenAI researchers to leave the company and found competitor Anthropic."
Earlier this year, Altman joined a number of industry leaders in signing a letter declaring that "mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." But researchers have warned that the guardrails put in place at OpenAI are badly inadequate, particularly given the current regulatory vacuum in the U.S.
Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at bolstering AI safety standards, a move that watchdogs welcomed as a positive first step that must be followed by more ambitious action.
It's unclear precisely what influence Summers will have on the direction of OpenAI or artificial intelligence development more broadly.
As Bloombergobserved Wednesday, "The few comments he has made about AI have centered on the labor impact."
"In 2018, Summers disputed the claims from then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin that AI would not replace American jobs for 50 to 100 years," Bloomberg noted. "The robots are coming,' Summers wrote in The Washington Post. That year, he also warned of economic catastrophe if the U.S. 'loses its lead' in biotech and AI to China."
Last year, Summers toldBloomberg TV that "we are living in truly historic times" and said the AI revolution carries "opportunities and threats," adding that there's "no assurance at all" that advances in artificial intelligence will usher in progressive outcomes.
Critics suggested that with Summers involved in the management of OpenAI, the chances of guardrails operating in the public interest, as opposed to corporate profits and dominance, are worse.
"Summers' ascent to the heights of AI should accelerate concerns that AI will be bad for all but the richest and most opportunistic amongst us," said Hauser.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sioux Tribes Want US to Come Clean on Treaty Deceit
"For centuries, the U.S. government has broken every promise it's made to Native tribes," says Standing Rock Sioux Chair Janet Alkire. "It's time for that to stop."
Nov 22, 2023
Leaders of the Standing Rock and Oglala Sioux said Wednesday that the two Native American tribes are joining forces in an effort to pressure the Biden administration into a reckoning over a dubious 19th-century treaty that—like just about every other one signed between the U.S. and Indigenous peoples—was broken by Washington.
The two tribes are seeking nation-to-nation consultations between U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Assistant Indian Affairs Secretary Bryan Newland—both Native Americans—and the remaining signatory tribes to the Fort Laramie Treaty.
"This is about correcting an injustice," Standing Rock Chair Janet Alkire said. "For centuries, the U.S. government has broken every promise it's made to Native tribes. It's time for that to stop."
"Furthermore," she added, "we're calling on the Biden-Harris administration to take active steps to correct the record."
Treaty rights remain a critical point of contention for the Sioux, who in recent years have fought against violations of their land, water, and sovereignty, including the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines—the latter of which was canceled by President Joe Biden.
"We'd like the current government to take an honest look at what happened."
In the 1860s, fierce Indigenous resistance to Euro-American encroachment on the Great Plains and an Army already weakened by the Civil War resulted in a series of U.S. defeats, including a December 1866 ambush led by Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors that killed all 81 soldiers under the command of Capt. William Fetterman during the Powder River War. It was the worst defeat of U.S. forces on the Great Plains until Little Bighorn a decade later.
In 1868, the U.S. signed the Fort Laramie Treaty with the Arapaho and the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota Sioux. The treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation and designated the Black Hills as "unceded Indian territory" to be "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of Indigenous peoples.
However, the tribes claim U.S. officials subsequently—and surreptitiously—added language to the treaty stating that the Indians "relinquish all claims or rights" to lands outside the designated reservation. The U.S. then blatantly abrogated the treaty following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota and, when Indians fought back, unleashed a fresh wave of genocidal violence against them.
"U.S. treaty negotiators snuck the relinquishment language into Article II of the treaty after it was signed by the Sioux chiefs to end the Powder River War," said Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out. "We'd like the current government to take an honest look at what happened."
The Indian Claims Commission, a judicial relations arbiter between the U.S. government and Indigenous tribes, concluded in 1976 that the treaty "effectuated a vast cession of land contrary to the understanding and intent of the Sioux."
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the United States had illegally taken the Black Hills and awarded over $100 million in reparations to the Sioux Nation, which refused the money—now worth over $1 billion—on the grounds that the tribe never wanted to part with its lands in the first place.
"The Black Hills are not for sale," Alkire said Wednesday, "and they never were."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular