I don't mean to revive an old argument, but this represents a follow-up which
I promised to send last month.  It doesn't relate specifically to museum
issues, so I hope no one minds too much.  In the discussion about flag
display and free speech, several on the list, and David Haynes privately,
questioned my assertion that individuals and groups occasionally succeed in
overturning employers' directives through legal action.  Today I spotted a
reference to a 1999 case in the Washington Post:

"In 1999 Carlos Solero and seven other Spanish-speakers--along with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission--filed lawsuits against Watlow Batavia
Inc., a metal-casting and assembly company in Batavia, Ill., for being told
they could not speak or even sing or mumble in Spanish.  The group won more
than $190,000."

The context suggests that the case was won on the basis of discrimination,
although it's hard not to see it as literally a free-speech issue as well.
(I don't know if any part of the legal argument was framed in terms of
freedom of speech.)  Imagine, being forbidden to "mumble" in Spanish!  But
the point is that, whatever the legal issue was, even private employers are
not automatically immune from having their rules contested successfully.  The
case was mentioned within an article about Spanish-speaking aides in the
Arlington County, Va., school system objecting to prohibitions by supervisors
against the aides speaking in Spanish to parents of students.  If this debate
ends up in court, I personally doubt that discrimination will be the issue,
since the aides were hired specifically for their bilingual ability in the
first place!  It seems that the non-Spanish-speaking supervisors are nervous
about not knowing what the aides are saying to the parents.

David Haberstich

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