Re: Sacramento, CA

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

> Thanks for the thought, Brian. I'm looking forward to a pleasant
> retirement with a course to teach (introductory astronomy) in the
> fall and, perhaps, the physics of music in the spring. I will be
> Professor Emeritus on my retirement, and the Chairman just asked
> me if, since I was going to be around, I would be advisor to the
> physics majors for the next year. Fortunately I don't really need
> the money. We've saved plenty over the years, our house is paid
> off, and I will get federal benefits and a pension if I elect to
> take it. The only thing that bothers me is that almost every
> other kind of employment is protected from age discrimination. We
> professors have been singled out (in a Supreme Court decision, no
> less) for special exemption from this protection in our Charter
> of Rights and Freedoms, a pale imitation of your Bill of Rights.

A depressing comment from south of the border, at least it is depressing to
me; being a state employee.

Some recent US supreme court cases seem to have nudged things into the
direction that state employees do not enjoy many of the same rights in the
work place that all others enjoy, for example states can practice age
discrimination if they want.  The legal basis has something to do with
seperation of powers between federal government and state governments and
the idea that only items specifically enumerated in the constitution can
take precedence of state law.  (being no lawyer, I may have muddled the
above description.)

I take this to mean that some types of discrimination may not be practiced
by state governments on constitutional grounds; e.g. I believe that race
discrimination would not be allowed as many of those laws are based on the
14th amendment, which being in the constitution falls in the set of statutes
and powers specifically enumerated in the the constitution.

It is generally not appreciated by US citizens just how limited their rights
are under the US constitution.  One of the more obvious examples is that
there exists a great deal of considered legal opinion that maintains there
is no right to privacy within the US constitution (this is a debated point).

Joel Rauber