US to criminalize taping of animal cruelty - Page 11

On April 13 2013 01:53 hypercube wrote:
I don't understand how even asking if someone is a member of an animals' rights organization on a job interview is legal.

Seems like it should be against non-discrimination laws.

On April 13 2013 02:05 Thieving Magpie wrote:


You're allowed to ask any question you want on an interview.

You're not required to hire someone after an interview.

If it is found out that you didn't hire someone *because* of race/gender/etc... then you have committed discrimination and are punishable.

For example, say a misogynist asks "Sam" to come in, and she comes in and only then does he find out her name is Samantha and not Sam. They'll go through the interview, and he'll nitpick one thing wrong with her like "only worked 1 year at such and such" and decide he can't hire someone who can't be trusted to stay loyal to the company.

Now he probably knows that he didn't hire her because she's a woman--but so long as he has an "official" reason not to hire her they can't really fault him with anything save judgmental glares. If someone is accused of discrimination american law presumes innocence unless sufficient evidence is provided.

Now a farm *could* say "conflict of interest" as a reason--but that leads to a level of specificity that I am not comfortable discussing due to lack of expertise.

On April 13 2013 02:19 FromShouri wrote:


Dude you clearly have no clue what you're talking about, interviewers aren't allowed to ask "any" question they want.

"Federal and state laws prohibit prospective employers from asking certain questions that are not related to the job they are hiring for. Questions should be job-related and not used to find out personal information.

In a nutshell, employers should not be asking about your race, gender, religion, marital status, age, disabilities, ethnic background, country of origin, sexual preferences or age. "

Any thing that is related to these specific categories:

Race
Color
Sex
Religion
National origin
Birthplace
Age
Disability
Marital/family status

are illegal to ask about. Legally speaking asking if someone has ties to an animal activist group, while applying for a job in a meat processing plant is technically related to the job. That said, this is very similar to the whole "you can't video tape police" argument which effectively got shot down by the supreme court. As long as you're in a public area you can video tape what ever you want, if you're on private property though, you can only video tape what the owner wants you too lest you get charges brought against you.

On April 12 2013 20:00 Kukaracha wrote:

It's still doesn't make any sense.

There's a difference between videotaping something as a whistleblower, and doing in it for your own pleasure.
And so private property defends people from any sort of creep wanting to film them in secret, though it does not defend an individual from exposing a corporation's illegal and/ or immoral actions.

On April 13 2013 02:35 farvacola wrote:
Some of those are far easier to approach in an interview than others though. In other words, its much easier to fish for family status and age than it is race, color, or religion.

On April 13 2013 01:53 hypercube wrote:
I don't understand how even asking if someone is a member of an animals' rights organization on a job interview is legal.

Seems like it should be against non-discrimination laws.

On April 13 2013 02:38 dAPhREAk wrote:

im pretty sure you are not a whistleblower if you break the law to obtain the information. whistleblower laws encourage people to speak out when they know something already, not to break the law to obtain knowledge.

On April 13 2013 02:42 Thieving Magpie wrote:


It's pretty gray right?

Cops can't just barge into random people's homes looking for evidence, but if a trespasser videotapes a gang rape double murder--they won't get as punished for turning in evidence as say a Sheriff kicking down the door yelling "where's the fucking drugs!"

On April 13 2013 02:19 hypercube wrote:
How about discriminating based on political views? Am I allowed to not hire someone who supports Ralph Nader, for example?

I know people here (as well as other places in Europe) tend not to ask women if they want to start a family because it would strengthen any gender discrimination case the applicant might start.

As for coming up with bogus reasons, I believe the standard practice is to send in applications that are similar or identical to the turned down applicant (except for the variable that's supposedly being discriminated against). So let's say a 50-year-old is turned down from a retail position with the reason that the work is too physically demanding. An anti-discrimination group might send a 25-year-old who is in similar physical condition, and if he gets the job they have a pretty good case for age discrimination.

On April 13 2013 02:58 dAPhREAk wrote:

political views are a state by state issue. some states allow such discrimination, some states don't. federal govt allows such discrimination.

just as an fyi, "discrimination" has a negative connotation, but its not actually inherently negative. i discriminate between vanilla and chocolate ice cream, because i prefer vanilla.

edit: after typing that, i thought it was probably a bad example. ;-)

On April 13 2013 02:32 Thieving Magpie wrote:


There are MANY ways to ask those questions without asking them directly.

Such as "my kids are such a handful, you probably know" or "Have you lived in the area long? I love _____ restaurant" or "Why did you choose such and such school, was it nearby?" etc...

Employers ask those questions all the time to try to acquire those answers. Then there are those questionaires job post sites have such as Monster.com or any of the other job listing sites that ask you questions such as sex, age, etc...

Some employers simply ask "You must have started college right after high school--when did you graduate again?" And then do the math from there.

There are MANY ways to ask those questions, to think companies are too stupid to ask them sideways is a silly thought.

On April 13 2013 03:11 FromShouri wrote:


Ya there is definitely a difference between you voluntarily giving up that information by being asked a "small talk" question and them outright asking you it. It is completely clear you haven't been to many interviews or had any sort of interviewer training. The thing with monster isn't even relevant because they aren't hiring you so of course they'd ask for all that information, doesn't mean you have to give it to them.

On April 13 2013 02:38 dAPhREAk wrote:
im pretty sure you are not a whistleblower if you break the law to obtain the information. whistleblower laws encourage people to speak out when they know something already, not to break the law to obtain knowledge.