The Nassau Herald on the Orthomom Lawsuit
Here are a few choice tidbits from the Nassau Herald's article on the subject:
And look which other of our fine board members is as staunch a proponent of free speech and our First Amendment rights as Greenbaum is:
Hofstra University Law Professor Eric M. Freedman said Greenbaum's action of seeking Orthomom's identify has little to no chance of moving forward since derogatory language against a public official like a school board member is protected under the first amendment. Professor Freedman, an expert on the First Amendment and other civil liberty issues, said in order to seek the identity to pursue a lawsuit there needs to be a chance that the grievance would be successful which is not the case in Greenbaum's action.Thanks for the vote of confidence, Professor Freedman.
"If the courts are behaving appropriately this filing will go absolutely nowhere," said Professor Freedman. "If she knew who Orthomom was and sued her directly it would be thrown out."
And look which other of our fine board members is as staunch a proponent of free speech and our First Amendment rights as Greenbaum is:
"I think she's absolutely justified," Stanley Kopilow, Greenbaum's fellow school board member, said of her suit.But school board President Asher Mansdorf is decidedly not on board with the legal action:
Lawrence school board President Dr. Asher Mansdorf said that since 2001, when he began serving as a trustee, he has often been deeply offended by comments made about him and has even been the target of death threats, but, he added, bringing a lawsuit is not the answer to the problem.Of course it will. Chilling free speech is the very evident goal here.
Mansdorf criticized Greenbaum's action against Google. He also slammed recent suits brought against the Lawrence school district, including one attempting to remove three Orthodox members from the board and another trying to block a referendum that, if approved, would have provided busing to pre-kindergarten students in private schools and permitted community groups the free use of school buildings after hours. Mansdorf said the court actions were "designed to intimidate."
He also expressed his concern that the impact could dampen open dialogue. "Does Pam not think that a lawsuit will have a chilling effect on free speech?" Mansdorf asked.
posted by orthomom at 5:33 PM
23 Comments:
its amazing that greenbaum and her attorney are keeping mum and refusing to comment to anyone. sounds like a sinking ship when the herald who is always sympathetic to greenbaum prints a quote like the one from the legal expert here.
but om, i disagree about your free speech being chilled. the only one who seems to have been silenced into submission by this suit is greenbaum herself.
Orthomom, you are just eating all this attention up with a big fat spoon, aren't you?!
Orthomom is one sided and deserves this Lawsuit
ROB SCHOENFELD said...
Orthomom is one sided and deserves this Lawsuit
Lol. Yeah, let's sue anyone who has an opinion. I mean, isn't there a law that says that all people have to be completely unbiased? Or maybe I missed the part of the first amendment that says that people have to qualify all of their statements with "on the other hand..."
what happened in todays court appearance? dont keep us in suspense om!
What's so absurd is that not only did she take a risk by bringing forth this ridiculously based lawsuit in the FIRST place, but she took the risk even knowing there was a tiny tiny chance she would even succeed. So she took this huge risk and invited thousands and thousands of people to find your blog for the first time, and made thousands and thousands of people more are of the comments against her and your opinions.
... and she did all this having to know that this whole suit had a snow balls chance in hell to begin with?
That makes me thing either she is not playing with a full deck and was so angry and insulted she wasn't listening to expert advice.
or ...
she had no idea how powerful bloggers rights are and how fast things like this spread and how awful she would come out looking.
Either way it shows a lack of judgment and puts into question her ability to do her job properly.
One would have to really think twice next time those election come around ...
--- what happened in todays court appearance? dont keep us in suspense om! ---
My guess is that it didn’t happen.
I make that assumption based on Google’s statement in the Nassau Herald that they haven’t been served. If you search the court’s website, it indicates that the motion was scheduled for today. However, when a party files an Order to Show Cause, (OSC), the court immediately assigns a return date. However, it is the moving party’s obligation to serve the court papers on the opposing party. The court cannot hear the matter unless the opposing party was served and had sufficient time to respond to the contents of the OSC. Thus, if Google was never served with the court papers by Pam’s attorneys, there cannot be a hearing on the matter.
go to my latest comments in the 5t jt on the orthomom lawsuit blog
and open your eyes
More delusions of grandeur from Chaim about the oh-so-large and oh-so-powerful Jewish Blogosphere.
I am a student at hofstra law and i can stipulate that Professor Freedman (the rest of them too) is an absolutely brilliant constitutional law expert and knows exactly what he is talking about.
There are those who practice law and those who teach it.
Hey Orthomom,
I am in the middle of a busy time and just can't keep up. But I just wanted to say hello and goodluck. --SephardiLady
While I respect both Greenbaum and Kopilow, this entire thing is dumb. I also, for once, agree with almost everyting Dr. Mansdorf says in the Herald piece. The only criticism I have is on his use of the blocking of the referendum as an example of an abuse of power. My problem with the referendum was not necessarily the busing, but the board never put forth any numbers as far as cost goes. I found this hypocritical from the Orthodox board members (and Sussman) that have branded themselves the keepers of fiscal responsibility. Give the people numbers, and let them vote, I say. Anyway, back on topic, if Mr. Kopilow advised Ms. Greenbaum to go forward with this suit, my esteem for him as a shrewd attorney just diminished substantially.
I just would like to say thanks to the 5 Town Jewish Times for printing this article and introducing me to Orthomom . I think if it wasn't for this article I would not have known about this blog site . THANKS!
"I also, for once, agree with almost everyting Dr. Mansdorf says in the Herald piece. The only criticism I have is on his use of the blocking of the referendum as an example of an abuse of power."
Back when it happened, Dr. Mansdorf gave some dopey excuse about wanting to give away the library as the reason for taking down the referendum, and he said in the papers that the 250-claimant grievance filed with the State had nothing to do with his decision to cancel that vote. So, Dr. M, which is it? And when are we giving our library away?
Giving the deed to the library bd is hardly giving the library away. It is an attempt to allow the library the most freedom in establishing a library that will meet the needs of the community.Previously, the interests that were oppossed to the library receiving accomodations from the Bd of Ed were the public school parents, acting as a special interest group, who were more concerned for the 250 children atending Number One School than for the whole community. That anti-community sentiment still exists on the Board and in the public. These are the interests that want every last penny for the "public school children" (or LTA etc) and do not care to accomodate the library or the entire community. Dr. mansdorf and fellow Bd members who support helping the library have a vision of the whole community and the future. The efforts to help the library which serves all the people should be applauded and encouraged. The agenda of those who do not should at the very least be questioned.
ZOh. So in other words Dr. Mansdorf is giving away a the school district's million-dollar asset and not even telling anyone about it. I suppose he'll announce it once its been done. Nice stewardship of the district's resources!
PS, the library does not improve the entire community. It improves those neighborhoods with easy access to it.
Let me understand this. The Library does not improve the whole community, just the members of the community who choose to have access to it? I guess the police do not improve life in the whole community, just the life of all those whose existencies they make safer and better. My goodness what nonsense. I guess the same group who believes that the minority of our children(that of course is the whole communities children)who use the public schools are the ONLY group to be considered for any use of resources now believes that we should take resources from the library to add to the feeding frenzy continued by the last teacher contract. The Board would not be giving anything away if it allowed the library to own the land that it has used for the last generation. Perhaps we need a referendum to see how the public feels. The same public who turned down budgets but voted for the library. Tell me, are you ready to ask the public if the library deserves the land. Let us let the public decide. How about it?
Seriously must you compare an old moldy building containing books with a police force that is charged with protecting ALL our lives?
Can you make no more intelligent analogy?
wow,scared to go to the public again. say no more.Question my intelligence, I question your agenda. You know what the public wants, and we know what you want. Your special interest can not win at the polls so why not try the back room. The old musty building that contains books represents the progress and hope for the future of civilization. The thoghts that went into the creation of democracy and elections. The majority (I will define the word for you if you do not understand it) of the public has expressed its sentiments regarding the library as it has passed library budgets with increased spending even as it has rejected public school budgets with less spending increases. I repeat, the library deserves the land it isd sitting on as a resource to build a new building. And again, from this humble blogger who can not make an intelligent analogy, let the public decide.
The library is not just an old moldy building, it helps everyone that chooses to use it, and even those who don't. Educating someone in public school has a limit, but with a library where someone can expand their own mind is something essential to society and to the world. I wonder why President's like to have libraries, of all things, named after them?
Bravo to you humble blogger.
So in other words Dr. Mansdorf is giving away a the school district's million-dollar asset and not even telling anyone about it.
For the record, the Peninsula Public Library original owned its land and building and it sold itself to the School District for $1 in order to officially become a "School District Library" which was a convenient arrangement for everyone.
While that was originally a beneficial arrangement for the library and the school district, lately it has grown more beneficial for the school district and detrimental to the library. So in conscience, there is nothing unreasonable about the school board deeding the property back to the library if the library wants it.
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