News
Amid Boston Overdose Crisis, a Pair of Harvard Students Are Bringing Narcan to the Red Line
News
At First Cambridge City Council Election Forum, Candidates Clash Over Building Emissions
News
Harvard’s Updated Sustainability Plan Garners Optimistic Responses from Student Climate Activists
News
‘Sunroof’ Singer Nicky Youre Lights Up Harvard Yard at Crimson Jam
News
‘The Architect of the Whole Plan’: Harvard Law Graduate Ken Chesebro’s Path to Jan. 6
The same kind of opposition that watered down the Pennsylvania Loyalty Act is being mobilized to combat two more bills recently introduced into the Pennsylvania legislature.
One, labelled the "easy-firing bill" would automatically dismiss any teacher who refused to answer questions of legislative committees on the basis of self-incrimination. It is the product of State Senator Albert Pechan, Ford City dentist. The other would let a Committee on State Government investigate un-American activities of state employees, including teachers. Since all of Pennsylvania's major colleges get some state money, the committee could investigate them.
Both bills are in committee, where civil liberties groups are trying to bottle them up. Among them are the Committee on Christian Social Relations of the Pennsylvania Diocesses of the Episcopal Church and the Greater Philadelphia Civil Liberties Union.
In a statement on the "easy-firing bill," the ACLU said that "if, disregarding 160 years of American history, its proponents wish to rescind the privilege against self-incrimination, let them do so in an orderly, Constitutional fashion." Pechan's bill, the ACLU says, "circumvents" this privilege.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.