The Daily Signal - Tennessee Bill Allows Teachers to Carry a Gun, New EEOC Guidelines Require Prefered Pronouns, Supreme Court Rejects Peter Navarro Request | April 29

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, April 29th. Here are today's headlines. If you run a business with at least 15 employees or maybe you work for an organization that is that size or larger, then you need to listen up. The U.S. Equal Employer Opportunity Commission has issued new guidelines for all employers with 15 or more employees. Specifically, the new guidelines direct employers to them. allow men and women to use the bathroom of their preference. In fact, under the new federal guidelines, an employer would be guilty of harassment for requiring someone to use a restroom that they don't want to use, regardless of their biological sex. The new guidelines also require

Starting point is 00:01:03 that employers refer to someone by their preferred pronouns. The Daily Signals, Fred Lucas, broke the news on these updated guidelines earlier today. The Equal Employer Opportunity Commission passed the updated guidelines in a three to two vote along party lines on Friday. That's according to a source familiar with the EEOC. The new enforcement guidance says harassing conduct based on sexual orientation or gender identity includes repeated and intentional use of a name or pronoun inconsistent with the individuals known. gender identity, in parentheses, misgendering, or the denial of access to a bathroom or other sex-assigned facility consistent with the individual's gender identity. The guidance does not carry the same weight as a law passed by Congress or a regulation imposed by an agency. However, the guidance essentially

Starting point is 00:02:01 states the position of the EEOC. This means that an employee inclined to claim harassment regarding a restroom or pronoun dispute would have the guidance to refer to. Also upon private litigation, a plaintiff could refer to the formal position of the federal agency. What this means is that if an employer with maybe 20 people refuses to call someone by their preferred pronoun, that employee could sue. And under the new guidelines, the employer would be fighting an uphill battle against these new U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission guidelines. You can check out today's show notes for Fred's full coverage of this issue. Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro asked the Supreme Court to allow him to stay out of prison while he challenges his conviction related to January 6th. The Supreme Court

Starting point is 00:02:57 has denied this request. Navarro is 74 and held a couple roles within the Trump administration. The Hill reports that Navarro was found guilty last year of two counts of contempt of Congress. The first was for failing to provide Congress with documents related to the January 6 probe. And secondly, he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for skipping his deposition before the January 6th Select Panel. The latest rejection from the Supreme Court is the second time that the High Court has denied Navarro's request to keep him out of prison. In March, Navarro's request to stay out of prison went to Chief Justice John Roberts, who denied the request on March 18th. Navarro then reported a prison on March 19th, but he tried again and renewed his motion to Justice Neil Gorsuch, but that request from Navarro was again denied. For now, Navarro will serve out his four-month prison sentence.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Then his case will be heard before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Stay tuned. A newly passed bill in Tennessee will allow some teachers and school administrators to carry a gun. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law on Friday. The bill is effective immediately, but that does not mean that teachers are instantly allowed to carry a gun at school. The bill requires that any teacher or school administrator who wants to conceal carry on campus must first take 40 hours of training. Furthermore, any teacher or administrator who requests to carry a gun must receive permission to do so from the school principal, the district's direct. of schools and the chief of local law enforcement. Criminal and mental health background checks are also required before a teacher is allowed to conceal carry. Neither parents nor school staff

Starting point is 00:04:49 will be informed as to which teachers are concealed carrying at the school. The Tennessean reports that already public school systems in Nashville, Lebanon, Murphesboro, and Sumner County have told parents that they have no plans to allow their teachers to carry guns at school. Finally, today, an update on the pro-Palestine protests that have been taking place at university campuses across America. The Daily Signals, Jared Stetman, was back at the campus of Columbia University in New York today. That's where these pro-Palestine protests began. And the university at Columbia, they had told the encampment that they had to disperse by 2 p.m. today to vacate the premises and to leave the protests. The university actually sent a letter to members of the encampment at Columbia saying that it was a disturbance to campus.

Starting point is 00:05:45 And the letter warned that protesters at the school had already been identified and that many of those students were known to the university. And students were told that if they did leave and that they if they agreed to follow campus policy and abide by campus policy through June 30, 20, 25, or the day, of their graduation, whichever came first, that they would be allowed to complete the semester in good standing. Well, that 2 p.m. came and went at Columbia University today, and there were still protests. And Jared Stetman is on the line with us now to explain the situation. Jared, what are you seeing at Columbia University? Are the protests still pretty large there? The protests is still ongoing here and still quite large with a gathering out in front of the school. I'm actually at the entrance around the Broadway side of the school where there's a large gathering of protesters who are supporting those who are inside.

Starting point is 00:06:44 They're not allowing anybody on the inside of the campus except for students and those who are already there. But there doesn't seem to be any movement to actually remove the students yet. We're about an hour and a half away from the deadline, and things seem to be still basically static. There are a lot of NYPD, a lot of cops, or a lot of barricades around the front, but still no more. movement's going on inside. Have you seen police arrest any students? A couple of actually, but they didn't, it was hard to tell if they were students. They looked quite a bit older, but two people I saw did get arrested, they got put in handcuffs for mostly for, I think, crossing the barricades. So the police did take some people away. And there's been a little bit

Starting point is 00:07:25 of tussling between some of the protesters and some counter protesters here. That's definitely happened as well, where there people have been shouted down as they walked by saying they support Jews or Israel or whatever it is, and that's been happening too. Okay. Well, on Columbia University, they have said that the students that continue to protest are at risk of suspension or expulsion. Have you spoken to any students there outside, Jared? No, no of the students on the outside. The only people I've spoken to have been just kind of observers, people just watching people, a lot of people actually saying that they are against what's going on at the school and they're upset by the protesters. They'd like to see the NYPD

Starting point is 00:08:03 break up what's going on on the inside. So there's a lot of that. I don't think it's, it's certainly not solidarity here with those who are on the inside of the university. I think that there are a lot of people who would like to see what's going on to be shut down. Interesting. Well, Jared, thank you so much for your time. Stay safe out there. We appreciate the update. Thank you very much. And here in Washington, D.C., I went to George Washington University this morning. We covered on the show on Friday that there have been ongoing protests there, and there is still an encampment They're on campus with protesters, and they have actually draped a Palestinian flag over a statue of George Washington on campus, and the words, genocidal warmongering university have been written in paint across the granite base of that statue on campus. And when I was there today, the situation was pretty calm.

Starting point is 00:08:54 There's lots and lots of tents still set up across this large kind of pavilion area on campus. Students are sitting in tents. Some are taking a nap. others are working on their laptops, just hanging around. But the situation did get a little bit tense last night. Around 1 a.m. this morning, students tore down the metal barricades that authorities had set up around campus. And now those barricades have all been thrown into a large pile in the middle of the encampment. And there's two large Palestinian flags flying over, sort of stuck into those metal barricades flying over them.

Starting point is 00:09:29 But in a statement this morning, the university, George Washington University, said that the removal of the barricades around the encampment is an egregious violation of community trust and goes far beyond the boundaries of free expression and the right to protest. And the university has told the public that it's committed to implementing the safest resolution possible and added that additional security resources have been arranged to respond appropriately to this escalation. Stay tuned. We will keep you up to date on all of these protests. And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. If you have not had the chance, make sure that you check out our morning show. Tomorrow morning, I am sitting down with the president and CEO of the Georgia Center for Opportunity, Randy Hicks. We discuss the damage that has been done by America's welfare system and what can be done to correct these issues.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Make sure to catch that conversation tomorrow morning. Also, if you would, hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows from The Daily Signal and leave us a five-star rating and review. Thanks again for being with us today. For the Daily Signal's top news, we'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop.

Starting point is 00:11:00 To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Tennessee Bill Allows Teachers to Carry a Gun, New EEOC Guidelines Require Prefered Pronouns, Supreme Court Rejects Peter Navarro Request | April 29

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