Attorney General-elect Eric Schneiderman promises to run a turbo-charged activist law office to enforce civil rights and advance social justice.
The proudly liberal Manhattan state senator and attorney said he will use his office to root out discrimination — punishing gay bashing and promoting marriage equality, and prosecuting wage inequality against women in the workplace.
Schneiderman — who received staunch backing from labor unions — said he would zealously prosecute employers who stiff workers out of wages or violate safety laws.
In a bow to civil libertarians, the Democrat said he would create an “innocence unit” to probe wrongful convictions.
Schneiderman also said he will target Wall Street misdeeds to protect small investors.
(Source NY Post)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
22 Responses
I wonder if he will go after wall street. Spitzer didnt, he only went after the whistle blowers.
you all told the uninformed to vote for this liberal , now look what you got.
Well now we’ve got this toayva-loving A.G., and a governor who PROMISED he will make toayva marriage legal.
The “Empire State” of New York is going to have the same fate as the Greek and Roman Empires who fell for the same reason.
Recent statistics have shown that the alleged inequality of wages across the gender lines is baseless. Add to that the likely possibility there are areas where women actually dominate and/or where there is no similar paying job for men, and you have one more example of “if you tell the same lie enough times to enough people . . .
The questions is, will he have the nerve to crack down on frum institutions (such as YWN) for disseminating anti-gay propaganda (for example, prosecuting schools that use the word “Toeiva”). Since frum Jews support the Democrats no matter what they do, there is no political reason to prevent him. While America has protection of free speech (unlike Israel, where advocating Torah is clearly incitement on many issues, which is why we are persecuted there), there is still much mischief he can make.
YWN:
Please stop using the word “toeivah” in every title that refers to Gays. It is not a dignified or respectful way of speaking.
We all know the halacha with regards to the actual act, and I agree that we should maintain a strong religious position on some of these matters, but we do not need to be unnecessarily antagonistic and lack basic kavod habriyos.
#5 —
If he can prosecute YWN for use of the term “toayva”, then I guess he can prosecute publishers (Jewish and Non-Jewish) of the Bible because toayvah is translated as “abomination”.
Who knows,it may really come to that…
Akuperma,
Please explain what the Attorney General of New York can do to YWN about using whatever words they’d like. I’m pretty sure you know better here, but if you have a point, why be cryptic about it?
MichaelB: “Please stop using the word “toeivah” in every title that refers to Gays. It is not a dignified or respectful way of speaking…..we do not need to be unnecessarily antagonistic and lack basic kavod habriyos.”
I guess you hold that the Torah, which uses that lashon, is not dignified or respectful, is unnecessarily antagonistic, and lacks kavod habrios then?
The Torah uses that lashon, YW is right to use it too. Do you know better than the Torah?
You can not legislate or prosecute anyone for hating people, for any reason. Neo Nazis for example are allowed to exist, promote their hate, hold rallies in support of it, under the protection of the law. Hating someone is not against the law. Hating gay people is not against the law. Acting out against someone, based on that hate is againßþ the law. What this means is that he can not prosecute a yeshiva for teaching homosexuality is wrong. He can under law go after a yeshiva for not hiring a gay teacher. Is he saying that he is going to rewrite the laws of the stàte that it is no longer lawful to hate or simply disagree with another group? He isn’t THAT stupid.
#7 and #9
No one argues that the Torah uses the lashon of “toeivah” with regards to homosexuality as well as many other forbidden relations and activities.
HOWEVER
a) when speaking about a politician who wants to prosecute those who perpetarte violence against Gays – it is inappropriate to refer to the victims at ‘Toeivaniks’ -it is most distasteful and it implies that we condone such violence while by no means does the Torah encourage or allow hooligans to harm such people.
and b) as I mentioned in my previous post, we know what the Torah says, we know what the halacha is but when relating news in a forum such as YWN, it is unnecessarily antagonistic to always use the lashon toeivah. This doesn’t mean that we compromise on the halacha or our religious positions, but we should understand that a news article in YWN is very different from the Torah or Shulchan Aruch.
If people started referring to non frum Jews as ‘Chayav Misaniks’ would that be right? But wait, doesn’t the Torah says say that someone who is michalel shabbos b’farhesia gets misa? The answer is yes it does, but we use common sense (hopefully some of us still have) and we recognize when is a proper venue to use these harsh lashonos…
#8 – If you argue that defamatory speech (a.k.a. hate speech), leads to violence (i.e. incites the listener to violence), under some legal theories (popular in Israel) one can prosecute such speech. Most European countries and Israel routinely prosecute for hate speech. Whether you can do so in the United States is not settled. If you were to suggest that openly anti-Semitic speech could lead to prosecution, and if you argue that “gays” are a protected class of persons analagous to ethnic and religious minorities, it is quite likely that referring to them as “toeiva” would be prosecutable, and certainly government benefits (including tax exemption) could be denied to organizations that advocate such (just as tax exemption has been denied to neo-Nazi groups).
In effect, Schneiderman is saying that he considers Orthodox Jews (and other traditional religious groups, such as Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, etc.) to be similar to groups such as the KKK or the Nazis, and that the government can act against them. Whether he would do so is questionable politically, but given that his views were quite clear before the election and he did get elected, there is reason for people of faith (a generic term for a group that agrees on most matters but doesn’t let such agreement preclude constant bickering) to worry.
12,
That’s just not true. Barring the Supreme Court overturning the relevant precedent (and if you think that means the law isn’t settled, no law is) there is relevant caselaw on this in the US and the First Amendment protects hate speech from viewpoint discrimination. Under RAV vs. St Paul, you can’t pass a law banning hate speech, even if it incites violence, so long as it only bans the viewpoint of hate. That case was about cross burning, but the same principle applies. So long as a law does not make making pro-semetic or gay statements illegal, it can’t outlaw anti-semetic statements illegal.
You have more of a ground to stand on about the tax stuff, but it’s a serious stretch, it’s a legislative determination, not something for the AG to deal with, and if I had to guess, the Bob Jones precedent about taxation would almost certainly never be extended to a news organization (even assuming YWN was getting some sort of exemption), which have greater First Amendment protections.
As for your second paragraph, Schneiderman said no such thing. You can oppose gay bashing, but believe that religions should be free to preach what they want.
So is his royal highness going to go after Orthodox Jews who oppose this?
In response to #12 – Michael B., you are wrong, and there are several aspects of your position that are out of order.
1) Your position is that ‘gay’, dedscribing those people, is a neutral term, and not offensive, while toeiva’nik is.
That is not true. The fact is that the word gay really means and meant happy. A number of years ago, the toeiva’niks, who used to be called (and still are by some) homosexuals (not sure if that is allowed here, I prefer toeiva’nik), deliberately made a campaign to change their name to gay, to make it sound more positive and acceptable, and to claim that they really are happy with their toeiva lifestyle, unlike what people were saying that they were not. So when you call them gay, you are falling into their trap and using their propaganda terminology, which should be strenuously avoided, as YW usually does.
2)Calling them toeiva’niks is not the same as calling mechallelei Shabbos chayav misa’niks. Toeiva is a description of the act, not the punishment.
I don’t get what the problem is here. He is just saying he is going to enforce the law. Don’t you want an Attorney General to enforce the law?
The “act” is an abomination, not the man. A man is only referred to as an abomination when he usese false scales.
Those on this site would be better served by spending more time learning and less time kvetching.
We need to make a list of toeivanicks to vote and rally against.
MICHAIL B #6 Gay means Homo s ,is that not a Toavah?>??
15,
Do you have a source for your claim about the derivation of the word gay? According to Wikipedia, the word has been used to describe immoral behavior (not necessarily homosexual) since the year 1637.
In case you might have been worried that New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimation Act (SONDA) might affect Orthodox institutions, don’t worry. From the web site of the New York Attorney General’s office:
— begin quote —
Some exemptions that preexisted SONDA – and apply to discrimination on any of the grounds listed in the law, not only sexual orientation – affect SONDA’s application. A “religious or denominational institution,” or an “organization operated for charitable or educational purposes” that is “operated, supervised or controlled by or in connection with a religious organization,” may:
1.Limit employment, sales or rental of housing accommodations, and admission to persons of the same religion;
2.Give preferences to persons of the same religion or denomination; and
3.Take “such action as is calculated by such organization to promote the religious principles for which it is established or maintained.”
— end quote —
That is a very broad exemption.
There’s no surprise in his agenda. He was an Ultra-liberal State Senator and he will pursue his agenda as attorney General. Being “best buddies” with such a low-life rat like al Sharpton tells you very much about his character. what’s surprising is, why the “Community Leaders”, who always tell us what’s good for us and which political candidates to vote for, chose him over Republican Don Donovan, the former DA for Staten Island.
p.s.: Many years ago there was an ultra-liberal judge in NYC Criminal Court, who let all criminals go. Any relation?!