cannabisnews.com: Supreme Court Approves Public Housing Drug Ban
Supreme Court Approves Public Housing Drug Ban
Posted by FoM on March 26, 2002 at 08:42:09 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that government agencies can use aggressive eviction policies to get rid of drug users in public housing. Justices, without dissent, said they had no problem with a federal law that allows entire families to be evicted from public housing for the drug use by one member.The ruling is a relief for housing leaders, who argued that without such tools drug problems would worsen in public housing. The losers were four elderly California tenants who received eviction notices.
They challenged the zero-tolerance policy for drugs in federally subsidized housing and won in lower courts.Justices dismissed the tenants arguments' that they should be allowed to avoid eviction by showing that they were unaware of wrongdoing.Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote that the government, as a landlord, can control activities of its tenants. He said the ``one-strike'' law, passed in 1988 amid complaints about crime in public housing, was Congress' response to drug problems.The ruling affects anyone who lives in public housing. Senior citizens groups argued that the elderly would be hurt the most. More than 1.7 million families headed by people over age 61 live in government-subsidized housing.``It is not absurd that a local housing authority may sometimes evict a tenant who had no knowledge of drug-related activity,'' Rehnquist wrote.He said that even if tenants were unaware of the drug use, they could still be held responsible for not controlling narcotics crime of family members.The residents in this case were from Oakland, Calif., but public housing groups nationwide have followed the case. Similar lawsuits are pending in other courts.The Supreme Court reversed a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the California tenants, including 63-year-old Pearlie Rucker, whose mentally disabled daughter was caught with cocaine three blocks from the apartment she shared with her mother and other family members.When the case was argued before the court last month, some justices seemed sympathetic to the senior citizens. But they agreed that the law allowed their evictions.``Any drug-related activity engaged in by the specified persons is grounds for termination, not just drug-related activity that the tenant knew, or should have known, about,'' Rehnquist wrote.Justice Stephen Breyer did not take part in the ruling.The cases are Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, 00-1770, and Oakland Housing Authority v. Rucker, 00-1781. Source: Associated PressPublished: March 26, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Associated Press Related Articles:One Strike and Out, in Public Housing http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12046.shtmlCourt To Probe Zero-Tolerance Policy http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10969.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by Lehder on March 28, 2002 at 03:46:02 PT
get ahead! turn in a neighbor!
denunciations were
not simply an
expression of rabid
Nazism; nor, as I
have shown with
regard to the
enforcement of Nazi
anti-Semitism, was
overt or obvious
racism always the
decisive factor . . . The Nazi system of
party and state was
certainly repressive
and highly invasive,
but it was almost
immediately
"normalized" by
many people as they
began to accept it as
part of the structure
of everyday life. It is
easy enough for us
to overlook the many
ways in which the
population began to
count on and even
solicit the
intervention of the
system in their daily
lives and to calculate
how, by offering
information or
appealing to certain
official values, the
"authorities" could be
enticed or
manipulated "from
below" into acting on
their behalf . . . There developed in
both German
dictatorships [Hitler's
and East Germany] a
kind of denunciatory
atmosphere in which
people not only did
not shy away from
informing but also
often used the
system to pursue
personal goals of
their own. But quite
apart from the
subjective intentions
of the men and
women who offered
information to the
secret police,
denunciations had
multifarious effects.
They assisted the
police in enforcing
both the letter and
spirit of the laws, as
well as contributing
greatly to other
official goals, such
as control of the
population and
suppressing
opposition (broadly
defined). The
Gestapo, and later
also the Stasi, took
very seriously its
preventative mission
of hindering
resistance, and
indeed all "political
criminality," before it
occurred. At the
same time as they
assisted the
functioning of the
police, denunciations
also played a key
role in eliminating the
social enclaves that
would have allowed
people to gather,
discuss, and
organize resistance.
Without
denunciations in Nazi
Germany, for
example, there is no
telling how many
people might have
helped Jews or
members of other
stigmatized groups
or expressed
solidarity with them.
Insofar as
denunciations and
institutionalized
informing made the
Gestapo and Stasi
myths come alive,
they had a
devastating effect on
all forms of
disobedience, much
less resistance.
Evidence of the
extent and
consequences of
citizen informing in
the German
dictatorships remains
a source of unease
even now. http://prorev.com/nationofspies.htm
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #12 posted by Jose Melendez on March 26, 2002 at 18:02:21 PT
link
comment# 11 quoted from:"Poetry and American Memory"--An Essay by Robert PinskyAt:http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pinsky/memory.htm
"Poetry and American Memory"--An Essay by Robert Pinsky
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by Jose Melendez on March 26, 2002 at 17:59:54 PT
rich paupers
Another twentieth-century African-American poet,
Sterling Brown, takes a different, perhaps more artful route to a similar goal. In
"Harlem Happiness," Brown borrows the urban idyll of romantic Hollywood movies,
the glow around Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that transforms the cops and storekeepers
nearby. Brown adapts that idyll and daringly transforms it with the street vocabulary of
American ethnic categories. In his visionary otherworld, so unlike Hayden's lofty one,
Brown absorbs "dago" and "Mick" into the magic realm where all the
world loves lovers, as though race were another grace note of local color for the happy
pair.
I think there is in this the stuff for many
lyrics: --
A dago fruit stand at three A.M.; the wop
asleep, his woman
Knitting a tiny garment, laughing when we
approached her,
Flashing a smile from white teeth, then weighing
out the grapes,
Grapes large as plums, and tart and sweet as --
well we know the
lady
And purplish red and firm, quite as this
lady's lips
are....
We laughed, all three when she awoke her
swarthy, snoring
Pietro
To make us change, which we, rich paupers,
left to help the
garment.
We swaggered off; while they two stared, and
laughed in
understanding,
And thanked us lovers who brought back an
old Etrurian
springtide.
Then, once beyond their light, a step beyond
their pearly
smiling
We tasted grapes and tasted lips, and
laughed at sleepy
Harlem,
And when the huge Mick cop stomped by,
a'swingin' of his
billy
You nodded to him gaily, and I kissed you
with him looking,
Beneath the swinging light that weakly fought
against the mist
That settled on Eighth Avenue, and curled
around the houses.
And he grinned too and understood the wisdom
of our madness.
That night at least the world was ours to spend,
nor were we
misers,
Ah, Morningside with Maytime awhispering
in the foliage!
Alone, atop the city, -- the tramps were still in
shelter --
And moralizing lights that peered up from the
murky distance
Seemed soft as our two cigarette ends burning
slowly, dimly,
And careless as the jade stars that winked upon
our gladness....
There's a brilliant irony and a flaunting of
irony here, a mingled unreality and reality, the memory of the movies permeating the scene
like the memory of the love lyrics that the lover quotes later in the poem.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by dddd on March 26, 2002 at 16:36:31 PT
The trend that wont end..
..another absurd ruling by the Constitution tweaking Supreme Cohort.......perhaps the most disturbing thing about these "decisions",,is that there is not much anyone can do about it..Public protests are met with storm trooper "crowd control"......Poor people have less political clout than Black Americans.,,I guess that's because there are some rich Black people,,,but unfortunatly ,there are no rich poor poeple.....but then again,true riches are not measured by amounts of money....There are many rich paupers in this world .......dddd
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by Lehder on March 26, 2002 at 13:59:03 PT
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism
Should the Bushes be tossed because of Jenna and Barbara in the case of the former and Noel in the latter case? -- el tooncesAbsolutely Yes. The Bushes should be thrown out too. The George Bushes for Jena's illegal escapades with alcohol and I would bet various kinds of dope too, and the Jeb Bushes for Noelle's dramatical illegal and incompetent flaunting of the drug laws.I would like to know why the law is applied differently to the Bushes than to the defendants in this case and the thousands of other who will be rendered homeless because of it. Is it because the Bushes are white? Is it because the Bushes are rich while the defendants are poor?March on Washington, April 20http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/032502a20unity.htmlA simultaneous march will be held in San Francisco. This coincides with one of the traditional days of protest against prohibition and I am hoping that - as happened in Rome last weekend - the combined forces of millions from many protest groups will compel the media to take notice.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by null on March 26, 2002 at 13:30:15 PT
sounds familiar...
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote that the government, as a landlord, can control activities of its tenants.While the Federal government's actions as "landlord" may shock most of us, nations such as the Cherokee and Sioux will merely nod knowingly.He said that even if tenants were unaware of the drug use, they could still be held responsible for not controlling narcotics crime of family members.So why aren't the parents of the Columbine shooters in prison? Why aren't John Walker Lindh's parents on trial? ``It is not absurd that a local housing authority may sometimes evict a tenant who had no knowledge of drug-related activity,'' Rehnquist wrote.!!!!IT IS ABSURD!!!! Every justice that ruled on this case should be disbarred. Shame on the lot of you.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on March 26, 2002 at 12:54:32 PT:
Canada is looking better all the time...
The next thing you know, the landlords will demand piss-tests to rent to you. Immigrating to Canada
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/view-e.asp?Grp=000100B9&act=1&tbID=1
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by John Markes on March 26, 2002 at 12:19:06 PT
The Return of Communism
As you can see, the Supreme Court Justices have finally revealed they are not pro-American patriots after all. They choose to, unconstitutionally, rule that some may be punished by the crimes of others. If only we had some good red-blooded Americans on the bench.
ARDPArk
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #5 posted by el_toonces on March 26, 2002 at 11:44:29 PT:
Public Housing......
Are not the White House and Florida Governor's mansion owned by the public? Should the Bushes be tossed because of Jenna and Barbara in the case of the former and Noel in the latter case? Equal justice under the law!Seriously, this is an example of substances and the way people use them being used to control folks the way the Catholic Church (and many others) used spirituality and religion to control them in the past, esp. prior to Vatican II reforms.El
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by MikeEEEEE on March 26, 2002 at 11:16:10 PT
No justice for the poor
But if you have the money you could influence other policy.
Large donors meeting with Abraham included Duke Energy, which contributed $61,500 in soft money, all to the GOP, according to figures kept by the Center for Responsive Politics. Constellation Energy gave $38,950, all to the GOP. Northeast Utilities contributed $43,580, all but $2,000 to the GOP. UtiliCorp United gave $66,000, all to the Republicans. American Coal Co. gave $20,500, all to the GOP. Kerr-McGee gave $240,350, all but $20,000 to Republicans. Exelon Corp. gave $454,305, 74 percent to the Republicans.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0326-05.htm
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by Lehder on March 26, 2002 at 11:03:49 PT
thirdworldization and the war on civilization
This ruling empowers children to intimidate their own parents, to extort money, favors and modes of behavior from them under the threat of being rendered homeless. Anyone with a grudge against a family or a member of a family can easily destroy or blackmail that family.Here is but a single example of the many ways in which the War on Drugs empowers the most ignoble and violent members of society and endows them with unnatural control over decent and innocent productive people. This is just one of the many means that the War on Drugs uses to promote the very worst behavior in people. This empowerment of the indecent is the essential ingredient of the thirdworldization process and destruction of American civilization. It's absolutely no different from the Third Reich's glorification of hatred. It's precisely the same formula with x changed to y and Jew changed to Drug.When the economy has been damaged far more than it has been, when enough money has been extorted from honest workers by the likes of the Bushes and the Lays, and when enough people have been driven from their own homes - then, finally, they will snap to the truth that they've been deluded and deceived. And it will be too late.Welcome to Somalia, friends. Welcome to Zimbabwe.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on March 26, 2002 at 09:46:45 PT
Unequal injustice
As soon as they evict the Bush family from the Florida governor's mansion because of Noelle's Xanax faux-pas, then they would not deserve the title of hypocrites. Until then, however...
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by Dark Star on March 26, 2002 at 09:03:52 PT
Totalitarianism
The Supreme Court apparently wishes our families to engage in policies reminiscent of the Hitler Youth: persecute your kin to satisfy the state. This is a horrendous ruling that is unjust and unworthy.
[ Post Comment ]
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