Sunday, December 31, 2017

I Thought Liberals Liked Undercover Operations

Almost everybody likes watching someone get a well-deserved come-uppance.  60 Minutes, which has been on TV since I was a toddler, is an example of a tv show well known for ambushing people with questions they'd rather not answer.  Do something wrong, pay a penalty.  In the past, liberals seemed to believe in this view (they especially like leaks from the Trump White House).

But not with Project Veritas.  James O'Keefe and his crew expose things about liberal organizations that they'd rather no one else know, and liberals try every trick in the book to stop him.  This time they succeeded, but only temporarily:
A federal judge in Detroit on Wednesday lifted the temporary restraining order a major teachers union won against the conservative group Project Veritas and denied a request for a preliminary injunction.

A Wayne County circuit judge in September blocked Project Veritas, a group run by provocateur James O’Keefe, from disclosing videos of other information it obtained in an undercover operation carried out against the American Federation of Teachers chapter in Detroit.

AFT Michigan alleged that Project Veritas operative Marisa Jorge used the name Marissa Perez and posed as a University of Michigan student to gain access to the chapter as an intern. The group claimed Jorge “unlawfully accessed and transmitted proprietary and confidential information and engaged in unlawful and unauthorized surveillance of” employees.

AFT Michigan had sought an injunction citing a strong likelihood of success with respect to violations of the Michigan Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the Michigan Eavesdropping Act and Jorge’s breach of fiduciary duty, all of which failed to hold up in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker ruled that the AFT failed to meet the proper criteria for issuance of a preliminary injunction.
WHAT?  She used a fake name?  The horror!
The court did concede that AFT Michigan had a likelihood to succeed on the merits of its breach of duty of loyalty claim, though. But it also found that a preliminary injunction would raise First Amendment concerns, cautioning that the course of action would “most certainly … infringe upon Defendants’ First Amendment right.”
Much like in every other human endeavor, if you're doing something you want to keep secret because you think it will make you look bad if people found out about it, Option 1 might be to stop doing it.  While that advice doesn't work 100% of the time, it works often enough to be considered.
Weingarten and Hecker slammed what they called O’Keefe’s war on teachers, students and families, as well as his reliance on “secret infiltration and lies, heavily edited videos and spurious claims” to advance a political agenda.
Randi, Randi, Randi.  You know what?  That one's too fun to comment on; I'll just let it sit here in the sun so everyone can relish the rampant hypocrisy.

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