The judge was on the job for 12 years, obviously without a disciplinary record, and stated in an e-mail that he treats everybody equally and with respect.
Apparently, that was not enough for him to keep his job.
He was fired - and sued the federal government.
A lawyer specializing in such issues reportedly stated in an interview about this case:
""If it's a requirement in the job in terms of training, you ought to take it," he said, "and if you really feel that strongly about it you can say, 'I won't take it, but I will recuse myself if the people in court fall into this protected group.'"
I disagree.
An employer, especially when the employer is the federal government, may not order just any training, the training must be related to the job performance, and must be related to the particular problems in the job performance.
A desire to simply "raise cultural awareness" is not enough to jam certain training down people's throats.
In this case, the judge clearly stated that he treats everybody in his courtroom with equal respect, and thus there were no reasons to fire him.
Political issues aside, the question here is:
- if an employee does his job;
- did not commit misconduct, and
- did not commit discrimination of any kind while on the job
can he be fired for simply refusing to watch "cultural awareness" training videos - once again, if he never discriminated against anyone for any reason and if he pledges to treat everybody equally and with respect, which is what the duty of a judge presupposes?
Can such "discrimination awareness videos" be regarded as asking from the judge to give MORE regard to members of the LGBR community instead of being neutral and impartial and treat everybody as equal under the law?
I will follow this lawsuit and report the outcome on this blog.
Stay tuned.
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