State SOS: Election Day should be a worker holiday
LANSING (AP) — Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is urging businesses to give their workers the day off on Election Day by making it a company holiday.
Benson said she’s encouraging Michigan companies to give employees the day off work on Nov. 3, so they can vote and work as poll workers.
She praised Wayne State University for recently announcing such a move, MLive.com reported.
“That’s the direction we should be moving in,” Benson said.
Keith E. Whitfield, Wayne State’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said that Nov. 3 will be a university holiday, with no classes held and only essential employees reporting to work.
“We hope that faculty, staff and students will take advantage of the Election Day holiday to exercise their civic duty and participate in these important national elections,” Whitfield wrote.
State Rep. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown, has a bill pending before the state legislature that would make regularly-scheduled election days in May, August and November state holidays.
When the state makes days like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents Day state holidays, he said, “many other businesses end up following suit.”
“I think that we want to make it as broad as possible, as easy as possible for people to participate in our elections,” Camilleri said.
Judge tosses lawsuit over transgender pronoun dispute
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) — A judge dismissed a professor's lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student's preferred gender terms.
Nicholas Meriwether's federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in a way that contradicts his Christian beliefs.
Schools officials contended that such language was part of his job responsibilities, not speech protected by the First Amendment, and that the case should be dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott dismissed it last week, agreeing that the manner in which Meriwether addressed the student wasn't protected under the First Amendment.
Asked whether Meriwether would further pursue the matter, his attorney, Travis Barham of Alliance Defending Freedom, said Monday that they are evaluating their next steps.
“This is wrong," Barham said in a statement. ”Public universities have no business compelling people to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold."
Meriwether had received a written warning for violating the school's nondiscrimination policy and unsuccessfully challenged his reprimand in a grievance process.
Meriwether said he treated the student like “other biologically male students.”
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