When The Government Substitutes Its Judgement for Yours

Sex offenders paid to baby-sit

Cornelius Osborne may not seem like baby-sitting material.

He was convicted of raping two women. A succession of felonies, from robbery to failing to register as a sex offender, repeatedly sent him to prison, state records show.

But over more than two years, the state paid Osborne nearly $5,000 to baby-sit two children, before his latest conviction — for dealing drugs — put him back behind bars.

Osborne, of Chicago, wasn't the only sex offender paid by taxpayers to baby-sit, according to a Tribune investigation that found cases of convicted rapists, molesters and other violent felons given access to children over the past decade. The money comes from a $750 million-a-year program that subsidizes child care for more than 150,000 impoverished Illinois families.

Feds to Trucking Company: You Cannot Fire Alcoholic Drivers

The federal government has sued a major trucking company for its firing of driver with an admitted alcohol abuse problem.

Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit maintains, and therefore employees cannot be prohibited even from driving 18 wheelers due to their histories of abuse.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the suit against the Old Dominion Freight Line trucking company on August 16, noted that while “an employer’s concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.”

Yes, convicted sex offenders do need jobs, but likely baby sitting is one that they should be restricted from.  I'm leery of blanket governmental bans on certain careers for drug related or even criminal convictions, but private companies do need to protect themselves in a litigious world, especially in a climate where the government itself is then willing to hang them out to dry.

Curiously, Exxon wanted to ban alcoholics from captaining ships after the notorious Exxon Valdez oil spill, and was encouraged by one Federal agency and forbidden by another:

Mindful that the Valdez lawsuits were based on an allegation the company negligently allowed a captain with an alleged history of alcoholism to guide the ship, Exxon implemented a policy forbidding persons who had undergone substance abuse treatment from holding certain safety-sensitive positions, such as captain of an oil ship.

The U.S. Department of Justice had helped Exxon develop that policy and urged the company to adopt it. But immediately after Exxon did so, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the company, claiming the policy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)."