It's time for David Blair-Loy to stop mincing around and sue Southwestern College, already

UPDATE: July 22, 2010

I am more concerned than ever about the motivations of local ACLU head counsel David Blair-Loy. He seems deeply concerned with his own career, as evidenced by the effort he must have put in to get busy lawyers to participate in the Daily Transcript's yearly opportunity for lawyers to promote themselves.

The Daily Transcript does not evaluate the lawyers it chooses as "Top Lawyers" of the year; there is no panel of experts making the choice. Nor do all the lawyers in town participate in the vote.

Instead, the voters select themselves. To win, a lawyer has to get his pals to send in ballots. (There is even a section for insurance lawyers.) The Daily Transcript seems to be promoting itself by exploiting lawyers who feel the need to promote themselves. The most highly regarded lawyers do not seem to participate in this contest.

David Blair-Loy has exerted himself mightily for two years in a row to become one of the many "winners" of this contest.

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See all Southwestern College posts.

David Blair-Loy, legal counsel for the San Diego ACLU, gets along too well with school attorneys. He even got an award from the bar association for "high civility" in dealing with them, and with other attorneys.

But the situation at Southwestern has gone on long enough. It's time to stop writing letters to Jonathan Pearl and Raj Chopra, and to take some action.

Southwestern College named one of nation’s worst First Amendment violators

See all posts on Southwestern College.

College administration named one of nation’s worst First Amendment violators
The Southwestern Sun
By Anthony Dacong
May 4, 2010

One of America’s leading defenders of free speech has named Southwestern College one of the nation’s 10 worst violators of the First Amendment for 2010.

SWC Superintendent Dr. Raj K. Chopra and Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs Nicholas Alioto were singled out for criticism by the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression “for promulgating and enforcing a policy limiting even peaceful and non-disruptive protests to a designated ‘free speech’ patio.” The Jefferson Center awarded its notorious “Jefferson Muzzle” to the college for events that arose from an October 22, 2009 student rally and a February 2010 effort by students to collect signatures for a petition to recall three SWC Governing Board members.

Southwestern College Pushed to the Brink by Brutal Power Struggle; Blackwater connection

Southwestern College Pushed to the Brink by Brutal Power Struggle
February 7, 2010
Voice of San Diego
By SEAN CAMPBELL and LYNDSAY WINKLEY

Andrew Rempt was correcting composition papers at his home when the doorbell rang.

Earlier that day, the Southwestern College English professor had stood with students protesting against class cuts. Now, the college's human resource director was standing on his doorstep alongside an armed campus police officer. Their message: Rempt and three other professors were banned from campus that night.

Three of them later learned they were being investigated for inciting students and not cooperating with campus police.

The incident enflamed the already volatile relationship between the South Bay community college's employees and Superintendent Raj K. Chopra. It has been an almost constant battle since Chopra was hired in August 2007, and there is no sign of letting up, even after the state's accreditation agency put the college on probation on Tuesday.

The president has acted unilaterally to enact massive budget cuts in the face of deep financial troubles, breaking course with previous administrations who involved faculty in decision-making. Now, three pro-Chopra board members are facing a recall, faculty is complaining of a culture of fear and California's college accreditation commission is threatening to shut the whole place down if the campus environment does not change...

They were up in arms about Chopra's decision to associate the college with controversial war contractor Blackwater and its "mercenaries." ...



Blackwater used 'child prostitutes in Iraq'
08 Aug 2009

New disturbing charges have emerged against XE, the infamous private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, whose operations came under spotlight after its 2007 carnage in Baghdad.

According to a report by MSNBC and based on alleged sworn declarations by two Blackwater employees in federal court, the firm used child prostitutes at its compound in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

The declarations added Iraqi minors got involve in sexual acts with Blackwater members in exchange for one dollar and Erik Prince, the firm's owner, "failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men."

Based on other statements, the firm was involved in another sex scandal; "Prince's North Carolina operations had an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, which was participated in by many of Mr. Prince's top executives."

The two employees also alleged that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," The Nation reported...

Southwestern College Free Speech Zone is somewhat larger than a postage stamp

The ACLU's Best and Worst in San Diego, 2009
Voice of San Diego
January 7, 2010
Kevin Keenan

Southwestern College Free Speech Zone: ...Mario Savio... is no doubt rolling in his grave over the state of free speech on many college campuses -- including post-stamp-sized "free speech zones," like the one at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Southwestern College's president, Dr. Raj Chopra, has designated a tiny patio area as "Free Speech Plaza," while declaring the rest of the 156-acre campus out of free speech bounds. The ACLU sent a demand letter, calling on the college to revise its policies to allow free speech and assembly throughout the campus. In 2010, we resolve to resolve this matter through negotiation or litigation.

Kevin Keenan is the executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.




Here is a link to David Blair-Loy's letter to Raj Chopra.