A federal appeals court has upheld a lower-court ruling allowing peace activists the same opportunity as military recruiters to address Atlanta students at the district’s “Career Day.” (See Education Week, March 15, 1989.)
The ruling stems from a suit filed in 1984 against the city’s school board by the Atlanta Peace Alliance. The suit charged that the district’s policy of allowing military recruiters, but not antiwar groups, to participate in Career Day events was discriminatory.
U.S. Justice Department lawyers joined the suit on behalf of the district at the district-court level, arguing that military recruiters should have preferred access to the event “for reasons of national security.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit’s decision last month upheld the district-court ruling that the peace activists could not be barred solely on the basis of the group’s antiwar position.
A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Dan C. Alexander Jr. on charges of racketeering and extortion related to construction contracts let while he was president of the Mobile County, Ala., school board during the early 1980’s.
Mr. Alexander, author of Who’s Running Our Schools?, a critique of the National Education Association, currently is serving a 12-year prison sentence for his 1986 convictions. (See Education Week, Jan. 14, 1987.)
The latest appeal in the case was based on a new U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of the federal Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations statute.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled last month that Mr. Alexander’s conviction under the rico statute was valid because his criminal activities were related and would likely have continued in the same pattern.
