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Discussion Board 13

  1. According to MLK a just law is one that upholds human dignity and treats all people equally. King also argues that just laws should reflect moral law which he associates with divine law in which he referenced biblical commandments and teachings to highlight the moral principles of what justice and equality should look like.  An unjust law is one that degrades human dignity and dehumanizes a person. Segregation laws are unjust because they targeted people based on race in ways that were degrading and dehumanizing. 
  1. I believe that it is an important distinction between just and unjust laws because as Dr. King stated it affects everyone whether directly or indirectly. An unjust law will affect the way someone lives their lives because it strips away one’s human dignity and self- respect. King mentioned in his letter having to explain to their children why they cannot participate in going to certain places or doing certain things simply because they were not accepted. This can take a major toll on one’s mental health and self image.
  1. I believe that the cash bail system is an unjust law because it disproportionately impacts people from low- income backgrounds. People who cannot afford to pay the bail must remain incarcerated before trial even if they are not convicted of any crime, while wealthier people can pay bail and secure their release even if they are facing similar charges. This is discriminatory and creates a flawed justice system where a person’s financial resources determine their conditions rather than the nature of the alleged crime.

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Discussion Board 12.1

In the Wal-Mart Stores Vs. Dukes case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wal-Mart. They concluded that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate sufficient commonality. While the plaintiffs did all share one problem which was sex discrimination, The majority opinion emphasized that the plantiffs’ claims were too individualized and specific and that they did not all experience the discrimination in the same way or to the same degree, making it difficult to have just one common solution for all involved, according to the Supreme Court. As a result the court ruled that commonality required for class action was not displayed.

The plantiffs also attempted to argue that the gender discrimination was common practice exhibited across all Wal-Mart locations. They backed this up with statistics and evidence that display the disparities between women and men across all levels and all Wal-Mart stores, however the court argued that there was not a company wide policy in place that stated that women should not advance or have equal pay and opportunities. 

Former Supreme Court Justice Scalia, reinforced this notion by sticking to what was written in Wal-Marts policy, stating “Wal-Marts announced policy forbids sex discrimination” This one line doesn’t negate the fact that women have been experiencing sexism and discrimination in the workplace and in life in general due to the deeply rooted patriarchal foundation of the country.

The decision made by the Supreme Court emphasizes the challenges faced when going against the large corporations and highlighted the challenges that gender discrimination claims face when trying to address broad systemic issues in the workplace, especially in the context of large corporations.

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Discussion 9.2

  1. The war on terror is different from traditional wars because your enemy can be anyone. Anyone can be a terrorist, and the country can choose to keep this war going on forever because there is no definitive “win”. The article states that historically anyone who protests government is believed to do it on behalf of a foreign government therefore they have had counterintelligence investigations opened on them. This can lead to the violation of several basic rights. Williams also emphasizes the danger of fear that this is a battle of the mind that can lead to the violation of civilian’s basic rights because when people know nothing, they suspect everything.

 

2. The “Roving Wiretaps” of the Patriot Act raises concerns regarding violations of the fourth amendment which protects civilians against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires a warrant. Roving wiretaps allows law enforcement to monitor multiple communication devices without needing separate warrants for each device, this in turn lacks the specificity required by the fourth amendment. Also, this means that law enforcement can eavesdrop on the conversations of random civilians for which they have no right to listen to because it is a violation of privacy.

3. “Sneak and Peek” warrants seem to violate the fourth amendment by allowing searches to occur without the property owner’s knowledge, this infringes upon the reasonable expectation of privacy in their own home and this also leaves room for the potential abuse of power. Law enforcement can place or tamper with evidence of they chose to do so.

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Discussion 9.1

  1. While other countries may have an official religion, the establishment clause is implemented to  prohibit congress from establishing or promoting an official religion of the United States. It also bans the government from favoring religious beliefs over others or favoring religion over non- religion. The Lemon test decides whether a law that might promote a particular religious practice should be allowed to stand. In order for such a law or act to be considered constitutional and remain in it must not lead to excessive government entanglement with religion, the action or law must be neutral in its effect on religion, and there must be some non-religious justification for the law. In sum, the government does not have an official religion because this is supposed to be the land of the free and everyone should be at liberty to decide what religion they want to practice. The process of the lemon test ensures that the is not disregarding or disrespecting anyone’s religion but also keeping that separation of church and state. 

2. Burning the U.S flag is protected by the First Amendment because it was decided that burning the flag is a form of symbolic speech. It is not harmful to anyone and it is not considered threatening symbolic speech or defamation of someone’s character in which cases it would not be protected by the First Amendment. 

3. By “taking the fifth” a person is choosing not to incriminate themselves. It means that they are exercising their right to remain silent and not give evidence in court or to law enforcement officers that might constitute an admission of guilt or or responsibility for a crime. 

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Discussion 7.1 – Alizia Zayas

    1. Citizens of a federal government are often prompted to actively participate in their government by electing city officials and congressmen because the federal system created two systems of government. Federal government is a shared government between the national government and the states. Laws can be made at both state and national governments. Unlike a confederal system where the states have the majority of power and therefore they are able to govern themselves in a way however, the United States moved away from this system because it doesn’t give the impression of a unified front in the way that the united stated want to be represented. A unitary system is a system in which the national government has all the power and the local government carries out all of the orders of the national government.

    2. The system of division of power is made up of of the three branches of government, the first and often viewed as the most important is the Legislative Branch. This branch is made up of the senates and the House of Representatives, they make the laws. The Executive Branch enforces the laws this branch includes the President, vice President and the Cabinet and they come together to enforce the laws. The Judicial Branch interprets laws. They can determine a law unconstitutional.

    3. After reading the articles about the benefits of the federal government, I see the connection in which the federal government can encourage people to actively participate in their own government. The federal government also influenced the closure of non-essential business and schools In March 2021, when former President Donald Trump declared that the businesses and schools be shut down until things were looking up, some state government officials may not have agreed but ultimately they came together to decide what was best for everyone. In addition, the federal government enacted the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, which provided local governments with much needed fiscal relief to help mitigate the ongoing fiscal and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with state and local spending on unemployment insurance, other public assistance, and health and hospitals rising to $230 billion above usual in 2021 which was allocated by the state government from the federal government. 

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    Discussion Board 6.2

    1. The concept of “faction” reminds me of the concept of “class” as we have been discussing. James Madison expresses his thoughts on controlling these factions. He states that we cannot destroy liberty which they claim this country in built on, but instead we should have the illusion of liberty by controlling the effects of of the faction. 
    2. According to James Madison in Federalist #10 the source of wealth are the “faculties” of men. I believe when Madison refers to faculties he is referring to many things. I believe that he is referring to opportunity, gender and race. It seems as though Madison believes that it is his right and the right of the white men who were born into wealth to remain that way. He is opposed to the idea of the working class obtaining any of this rights to wealth. 
    3. I do not agree with this explanation of wealth and poverty because I believe that this is a country of liberty and freedom and that anyone should have the the right to gain wealth and also be protected from the upper class who aim to exploit those who are climbing that ladder.
    4. According to Federalist #10 the core mission of the U.S government is to protect those of the upper class who are wealthy. To protect the upper class from the working class. Madison proposes we do this by controlling the effects of the democracy. “From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property” In other words to protect the Lower and working class from acquiring wealth and property. This should not be the governments core mission because this is supposed to be the land of the free where everyone comes to have equal opportunities.
    5. Madison would not agree with a democracy because this would give everyone equal opportunity and allow the lower and working class to have a say in the major decisions that impact the people of the government as a whole.
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    Discussion Board 6.1

     

    1. According to Articles 6.1 “..only property owning white males could vote, probably not more than 10 percent of the total adult population. Excluded were all native Americans, persons of African decent, women, indentures servants, and white males lacking sufficient property”  This excluded a majority of the people in which these crucial decisions were being made for. The article mentions this class of “gentlemen” and that “..almost all of them dread the efforts of the people to despoil them of their possessions..” Their main concern was not for the good of the people or the government. Their sole purpose in creating this system was to remain wealthy and keep those who were not so wealthy in check. 
    1. Would say that the social class structure of early United States society, was the same as ours today, or different? Explain.

    2. Just as George Washington wrote that a constitution was much needed to “to contain the threat of the people rather than embrace their participation and their competence” The working and low class people were portrayed as people who did not pay their debts and who advocated inflated paper money, this is similar to todays government. The democratic party is usually portrayed in the same way. This article states that small farmers were burdened by heavy rents, excessively high taxes, and low incomes. To survive they had they often had to borrow money at high interests rates and. This sounds a lot like society today, except instead of farm workers we are clocking into our 9-5 jobs and barely making it by. The rich want to stay rich, while the working class are scraping by. 

    3. The people who wrote the constitution were afraid of democracy because the upper class wants to have control of all decisions. A  democracy would mean letting the working and lower class have a seat at the table as well to be able to have that debate of the have and have-nots. The upper class was afraid that as the nation expanded the greater the variety of parties and interests and the more difficult it would be for everyone to be on one accord, specifically one that favored the wealthy. 

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    Discussion 5.2 : MCM’

    The MCM movement of exchange was created not with the intention to consume items or goods personally, but with the intention to buy and resell at a higher value in order to gain profit. Capitalists are able to maintain and increase their wealth by using productive forces of the factory. As stated in Pierre Jalee’s “How Capitalism Works” capitalists use their buildings, machines and equipment, raw materials and labor power, which all costs money (M) to mass produce a certain quantity of manufactured goods. This is the commodity (C), to resell these manufactured items which are already valued at (M’) before they even leave the factory. Capitalists are able to sell them at a higher costs than it required to create and manufacture them through labor power of their employees. They are able to get maximum productivity out of one person in the 8 hour work day by paying them only a portion of what they would make in value in a day. The employee still has to be clocked in for the rest of their shift, causing the employee to perform unpaid labor also known as surplus labor. The product of surplus labor is surplus value, which is the product of capitalist exploitation. Without surplus value the capitalists could not have come into being, nor could they survive. This is how the rich stay rich, they exploit their employees for their time and have them produce as much as they can to make the owner of the companies more money.

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    Discussion 5.1- Labour & Value

    1. Means of production are the tools or products one would need to produce something. For example, an artists means of production include paint, brushes, canvases, easel etc. Labor is measured in time and increases the value of everything. Labour for a painter looks like the act of painting a portrait for example, if the portrait took 5 hours to create, the painter labored for 5 hours.

    2. Value is how much labour it takes to make something. A products value is measured by how much labour it takes to produce under normal circumstances.

    3. Labor and value go hand in hand. The more labor that was put into producing something, the more valuable that product will be. As labor increases so does value.

    4. Labour power is the ability to labour, while labour is the act of production, Labour is measured in time.

    5. Surplus value is the idea that the worker is performing labor beyond what is needed to cover their wages. For example, If someone works in a restaurant and they make $90 a day, and they prepare and sell $300 worth of food along with other duties, the company then pays them their $90 and is able to keep the rest as surplus value.

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    Discussion 4.2

    1. The distinction made between owners and employees is the amount of work they do vs the amount of money they make. Owners are responsible for giving work to the employees while they make their passive income. They find ways to get the most pay out for the least amount of pay towards the worker. While the worker is valued for their ability to produce more. People may view the owners as the producers but it’s really the employee who produces and they earn their living on wages and salaries

    2. I understand the quote by Adam Smith to be saying that labor is of much more value than money.sometimes we may see money as the prize but without the labor of the working class no one would be able to profit. How much work one is willing to do and the quality of work in which one is willing to do holds the real value.

    3. I understand why some people may believe that class is apart of your identity. The late sociologist Erik Olin Wright said something that stood out to me “What you have determines what you have to do to get what you get” generational wealth is real and some people pride themselves on the fact that they have had to work their way up from nothing to even be apart of the “middle class” or “upper-middle class”. Some people have to work ten times harder than others because of certain opportunities they did not have growing up. The article also states “people who have similar levels of advantage or disadvantage could easily be imagined to form some common identity based on their shared situation”. This also stood out to me because its human nature to want to bond over a shared experience and in that people tend to create an identity for themselves and banned together with people who have also made that experience apart of their identity.

    4. The article states that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency” meaning the upper class or the “owning class” depend on the working class to keep their companies in business and to keep revenue and passive income coming in. The working class are dependent on the owning class to keep them employed and pay them a livable wage to be able to pay their rent and feed their families.