May 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against four AT&T workers who argued that their pensions were illegally reduced because of pregnancy leave. The employees took pregnancy leave before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) was law and a majority of the high court today said the act could not be applied retroactively. Writing for the majority in AT&T v. Hulteen, Justice David Souter said there was no intent by Congress to make the PDA retroactive. "There is no such clear intent here," Souter wrote, "indeed, no indication at all that Congress had retroactive application in mind; the evidence points the other way. Congress provided for the PDA to take effect on the date of enactment, except in its application to certain benefit programs, as to which effectiveness was held back 180 days."

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer filed a dissent, saying in part, that the PDA amended the Civil Rights Act "to require that women affected by pregnancy ‘be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons no so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work.' The PDA does not require redress for past discrimination. It does not oblige employers to make women who for the compensation denied them when, prior to the Act, they were placed on pregnancy leave, often while still ready, willing and able to work, and with no secure right to return to their jobs after childbirth. But the PDA does protect women, from and after April 1979, when the Act became fully effective, against repetition or continuation of pregnancy-based disadvantageous treatment."

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By Michael Foote, a prosecutor in Colorado and a Principal of the Truman National Security Project

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When the United States government uses the rule of law, it wins.

The Department of Justice faced no shortage of criticism when prosecuting seven Miami-area residents who pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and plotted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings around the country. Critics claimed it cost too much, or the defendants were not really serious about committing terrorist acts. Some even thought the accused were merely amateurs not worthy of government attention. After three trials and two defendant acquittals, even the critics have to acknowledge that five of the plotters are now convicted of providing support to a terrorist group.

For those of us who advocate the use of criminal prosecutions against terrorists, the Liberty Six convictions should be celebrated, not derided. The government used a civilian court to convict five individuals who wanted to join al Qaeda. It was the latest in a long line of successful preventive prosecutions against those who plot harm against the United States.