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Show The SaltLake Tribune NATION Friday, May 14, 1999 re Racial Slurs Turn Avis AgentInto Unlikely Free-Speech Poster Boy PEPE rman MTIW ECS 1) )*em) WOO PaO) ane: Se KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE When a San Francisco judge four years ago tried to muzzlea rental-car agency employee who had berated his Latino co-workers with racial insults, he unwittingly set the stage for California's biggest free-speech test in memory. At the time, Superior Court Judge Carlos Bea’s order seemed simple enough: The judge barred Avis rent-a-car service agent John Lawrence, an Avis manager, from directing any derogatory statements to his co-workers. The order cameaftera jury deter- mined Lawrence harassed the Latino Avis workers throughrepeatedracialslurs. But as it has turned out, the judge's order has transformed Lawrence into an unlikely poster boy for the First Amendment. Ina case that eventually could havenationalimpli- i eations for First Amendment rights in the workplace, the California Supreme Court last week considered arguments about whether the order against Lawrence — evenif a well-intentioned attempt to address harassment and discrimination — violates state and federal free-speech guarantees. “I cannotbelieve we live in a country where you can comeupwith a list of words you cannotspeak,” said San Francisco attorney Joel Kelly, who is pressing the issue on behalf of Avis and Lawrence, still an Avis employee. At the heart of the legal debate is the power of government to regulate words in the workplace. Avis, joined by a number of free-speech groups, argues that while harassing conduct can be regulated, speechof any kind cannot. Ontheflip side, lawyers for the Latino workers, with backing from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the need to keep the workplace free of harassment outweighs any restraint on free speech. “The question presented here is whether a court has the constitutional authorityto restrain a supervisor from hurling racial slurs at his workers, and to restrain the companyfrom tolerating this behavior,” the ACLU, which usually comes down on the side of the First Amendment, wrotein a friend-of-the-court brief. “The answer is yes.” Legal experts are notso sure. While somesaysuch speechrestrictions are a necessary outgrowth of harassment law and cannot be compared to First Amendment fights overpolitical speech, others say they are blatantly unconstitutional. Either way, there is agreement the state Supreme Court will break newgroundin the Aviscase. “This injunction makesit a crimeto s. a court thinksis offensive; that’s a big UCLAlawprofessor Eugene Volokh, who ha ied the case and believes theinjunction goes too far “It is thefirst look at the prior restraint [of speech] in the harassment-lawcontext.” The legal dispute dates back to 1991 and 1992 when Lawrence and other Avis employees wereac. cused of harassing Latino service workers at the agency's San Francisco International Airport facili ty. Seventeen workers sued A jury upheld some of the claims and awarded eight of the plaintiffs $135,000 in damages. The plaintiffs alleged that Lawrence often berated them withracial slurs, which Lawrence denied At the conclusionof thetrial, Judge Bea issued an injunction barring Lawrence from ever directing epithets at his colleagues. Avis did not appeal the damages, but did appeal the injunction on free- speech grounds. In a 1996 decision, a divided San Francisco appeals court upheld Bea’s ruling Another Jury EE AD Decides for Tobacco Firm THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KANSAS CITY, Mo. —A feder- al jury handed the tobacco indus- There. tryits second victory in four days Thursday, deciding Brown & Williamson TobaccoCorp. wasnotat fault in the case of a smoker who He died of lung cancerin 1995. Charles Steele’s family had sued for $26 million, claiming the nation’s third-largest tobacco company sold him an unreason- ably dangerousproduct. The fac- tory workerpicked upthe habit in hislate teens or early 20s, smoked 1%to two packs a day — mostly Kools — and died at 55. Jury foreman Gary White said Steele “was quite aware of the dangers, but the pleasures out- weighed the dangers.” On Monday, a jury in Memphis, Tenn., cleared B&W and twoother tobacco companiesofliability in the deaths of three smokers. US, juries have awarded damages in smoking-liability cases only five times — twicein Florida and once in New Jersey, Oregon and California. The Florida and New Jersey verdicts were over- turned on appeal, while the $51.5 million award in California was halved by a judge. Lawyers are And about 7000 cities in between. preparing an appeal of the Oregon verdict. In the Missouri case, B&W ar- gued that Steele never tried to quit smoking and that he was exposedto a host of cancer-causing chemicals through jobsat an aluminum foundry and at a brickmakingplant. The verdict “reflects recognition by the jury that Brown & Williamson acted responsibly in the processes of researching, testing and designing our products,” said B&W attorney Steven McCor- mick. Attorney J. Michael Cronan said the family won't appeal. Cop Says He Saw Officer WaveStick Allegedly Used To Torture Immigrant AT&T ADVANTAGE PLANS Perfect for anyone whotravels,for either business town. 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