ACLU Files Lawsuit Over Nose Piercing

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.

The lawsuit from the state chapter of the ACLU seeks a court order allowing Ariana Iacono to return immediately to Clayton High School, which has kept her on suspension for four weeks since classes started.

The complaint hinges on Iacono's claim that her nose piercing isn't just a matter of fashion, but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, which sees tattoos, piercings and the like as channels to the divine.

"This is a case about a family's right to send a 14-year-old honor student to public school without her being forced to renounce her family's religious beliefs," wrote lawyers from the ACLU and the Raleigh firm Ellis & Winters in a brief supporting the lawsuit.

The Johnston County school system has a dress code banning facial piercings, along with short skirts, sagging pants, "abnormal hair color" and other items deemed distracting or disruptive.

But the dress code also allows for exemptions based on "sincerely held religious belief," and says, "the principal or designees shall not attempt to determine whether the religious beliefs are valid, but only whether they are central to religious doctrine and sincerely held."

That's where the school stepped over the line, the lawsuit alleges, saying officials repeatedly dismissed explanations of the Iaconos' faith by the family and their Raleigh minister.

"We followed all the rules, so I don't understand why the school is being so unreasonable," Nikki Iacono said. "The dress code policy allows for a religious exemption, and I explained to the principal and various school officials how my daughter's nose stud is essential to the expression of our family's religious values."

Terri Sessoms, spokeswoman for Johnston County schools, said the district had received notice of the lawsuit, but officials can't comment on disciplinary actions involving individual students.

Ariana Iacono has been suspended four times since fall classes started, missing 19 out of 28 school days so far. On Monday, the school system denied an appeal of her most recent suspension, and told her she'd have to attend South Campus Community School, an alternative facility for students with disciplinary and other problems. She still wouldn't be allowed to wear the nose piercing in the other school.

Nikki Iacono, 32, joined the Church of Body Modification in 2009, and her daughter followed a year later. Their minister, Richard Ivey, thinks school officials are dismissing a little-known belief system simply because it's unfamiliar.

"I'm shocked that it's gone this far, but I guess I'm not surprised they'd be so quick to stick with their first judgment and not hear anyone else's reasoning," he said.

www.wavy.com

Va. ACLU Urges Localities to Ignore Cuccinelli's Opinion

Richmond, Va. --

The ACLU of Virginia urged Virginia police chiefs and sheriffs today to ignore a recent opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that says police officers can question individuals about their immigration status during a stop or arrest.

Rebecca Glenberg, ACLU's legal director, said the Cuccinelli opinion cited no Virginia law to back it up. Attorney Generals' opinions are advisory and do not have the force of law.

She said the Cuccinelli opinion likely would lead to racial profiling.

Cuccinelli addressed the possibility of racial profiling Wednesday in an interview with CNN.

"Being in Virginia, I can tell you that given our race history, we're very sensitive to not allowing for racial profiling, not allowing the kind of abuse of the legal process as happened in the '40s, '50s, '60s [which] we had to work our way out of frankly, through the '70s and on," Cuccinelli said.

"The way we avoid it in this situation is we apply the same rules to everybody."

Cuccinelli noted that the new Arizona immigration law required law enforcement officers to inquire about immigration status. Cuccinelli's opinion said that Virginia's law enforcement officers may make such inquiries, but they are not required to do so.

He said he expects that local governments around the state will devise their own policies for how their police and sheriffs should proceed.

Also today, Corey A. Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said he is asking Congress to subpoena Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for information about criminal illegal aliens that ICE is no longer taking into physical custody.

Stewart's inquiry follows a car crash in Prince William County that killed one nun and critically injured two others.

Carlos A. Martinelly Montano is charged in the crash with third-offense driving under the influence, involuntary manslaughter and driving on a revoked license.

The three nuns were less than 4 miles from their spiritual home at the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia monastery near Manassas when their car was struck head-on by a vehicle driven by Montano, a native of Bolivia and an illegal immigrant.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation Tuesday into how an illegal immigrant managed to avoid deportation, even after repeated arrests before Sunday's crash.

www.timesdispatch.com

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO IS AT IT AGAIN!

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was re-elected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's kind of a 'Git-R Dun' kind of Sheriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ), who created the 'Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights. Cut off all but 'G' rated movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a Federal Court Order that required cable TV for jails so he hooked up the cable TV again; only let in the Disney Channel and the Weather Channel.

When asked why the Weather Channel he replied, 'So they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my Chain Gangs.'

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value.

When the inmates complained, he told them 'This isn't the Ritz/Carlton......if you don't like it, don't come back!'


More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:
About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their PINK SOCKS.

'It feels like we are in a furnace', said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the TENTS for 1 year. 'It's Inhumane.'

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!'

Way to go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves..