Lynch v. Donnelly Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact

Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) asked the Supreme Court to determine whether a city-owned, publicly displayed nativity scene violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The court ruled that the nativity scene did not pose any threat to the separation of church and state. Fast Facts: Lynch v. Donnelley Case Argued: October 4, 1983Decision Issued:  March 5, 1984Petitioner:  Dennis Lynch, Mayor of Pawtucket, Rhode IslandRespondent:  Daniel DonnelleyKey Questions: Did the inclusion of a nativity scene in the City of Pawtucket’s display violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?Majority Decision: Justices Burger, White, Powell, Rehnquist, and O’ConnorDissenting: Justices Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, and StevensRuling:  Since the city did not purposefully try to advance a specific religion, and that no religion had no discernible benefit from the display, the nativity scene did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Facts of the Case In 1983, the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island put up its annual Christmas decorations. In a prominent park owned by a non-profit, the town set up a display with a Santa Claus house, a sleigh and reindeer, carolers, a Christmas tree, and a seasons greetings banner. The display included a creche, also called a nativity scene, which had been annually making appearances for over 40 years. Pawtucket residents and the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city. They alleged that the decorations violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, incorporated to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court found in favor of the residents, agreeing that the decorations were an endorsement of religion. The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, though the bench was split. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari. Constitutional Issues Did the city violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment when it constructed Christmas decorations and a nativity scene? Arguments Attorneys on behalf of the residents and ACLU argued that the nativity scene violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The nativity scene aimed to promote a specific religion. According to the attorneys, the display and the political divisiveness it caused suggested an excessive entanglement between the town government and religion. Attorneys on behalf of Pawtucket argued the opposite of the residents bringing the lawsuit. The purpose of the nativity scene was to celebrate the holiday and attract people downtown to boost Christmas sales. As such, the town did not violate the Establishment Clause by setting up a nativity scene and there was no excessive entanglement between the town government and religion. Majority Opinion In a 5-4 decision, delivered by Justice Warren E. Burger, the majority found that the city had not violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The purpose of the establishment clause, as shown in Lemon v. Kurtzman, was to prevent, as far as possible, the intrusion of either [the church or the state] into the precincts of the other. However, the Court recognized that there would always be a relationship between the two. According to the majority, religious invocations and references go as far back as 1789 when Congress began employing congressional chaplains to say daily prayers. The Court chose to focus solely on the constitutionality of the nativity scene in adjudicating the case. The Court asked three questions to help it decide whether Pawtucket had violated the Establishment  Clause. Did the challenged law or conduct have a secular purpose?Was advancing religion its primary goal?Did the conduct create an excessive entanglement between the town government and a specific religion? According to the majority, the nativity scene had legitimate secular purposes. The scene was a historical reference amidst a larger Christmas display in recognition of the holiday season. In constructing the nativity scene, the city did not purposefully try to advance a specific religion and that religion had no discernible benefit from the display. Any minimal advancement of religion could not be considered cause for a violation of the Establishment Clause. Justice Burger wrote: To forbid the use of this one passive symbol—the creche—at the very time people are taking note of the season with Christmas hymns and carols in public schools and other public places, and while the Congress and legislatures open sessions with prayers by paid chaplains, would be a stilted overreaction contrary to our history and to our holdings. Dissenting Opinion Justices William J. Brennan, John Marshall, Harry Blackmun, and John Paul Stevens dissented. According to the dissenting justices, the Court appropriately used the Lemon v. Kurtzman test. However, it did not properly apply it. The majority was too reluctant to thoroughly apply the standards to a familiar and agreeable holiday like Christmas. The Pawtucket display needed to be nondenominational and not promote religion in order to be constitutional. Justice Brennan wrote: The inclusion of a distinctively religious element like the creche, however, demonstrates that a narrower sectarian purpose lay behind the decision to include a nativity scene. Impact In Lynch v. Donnelly, the majority accommodated religion in a way that it had not in past rulings. Instead of strictly applying the Lemon v. Kurtzman test, the court asked whether the nativity scene posed a real threat to the establishment of a state-recognized religion. Five years later, in 1989, the court ruled differently in Allegheny v. ACLU. A nativity scene, unaccompanied by other Christmas decorations in a public building violated the Establishment Clause. Sources Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984)

Things Fall Apart and Universal Appeal - 951 Words

Things Fall Apart-Universal Appeal Confronted with a global conscious filled with hazy, negative conception of the African reality, appalled with such one sided works as Heart of Darkness and Mr. Johnson, Chinua Achebe determined in 1958 to inform the outside world about Ibo cultural traditions1. One can appreciate then, Achebe s inclusion of universal themes and concepts in is novel as a means of bridging the cultural gap with his audience and reiterating that Africans are in the end, human, just as members of any other race.Woven throughout the text of Things Fall Apart are universal themes in the form of images, concepts, and situations. â€Å"Does the white man understand our custom about land? How can he when he does not even†¦show more content†¦Some may hold that the novel is not a universal one, sighting inexplicable, foreign practices Achebe includes in the book without completely explaining them, (e.g Unoka s approach to his debtor, the unspoken laws of apology/ the kola nut), if he meant to give the novel a universal appeal, why did he include strange practices particular to Igbo culture? One must not forget that one intent of Achebe was to present Igbo culture through more objective eyes, and also through native eyes as had yet to be succesfully done. By leaving the reader to draw logical conclusions of their own with these matters, he also succeds in challenging his reader to examine such idiosyncrasies of his own culture, as is demonstrated in the discussion between the chief and original missionary Mr. Brown in which Achebe juxtaposes wooden idols and masked gods with the holy trinity. The success of Things Fall Apart can be attributed to the strategies Achebe employs in his story telling. Achebe succeds in maintaing the his goal- accurate representation of Ibo life, while presenting the information in a manner relatable to those not native to the culture. He also manages, in the process, to highlight some of the reasons behind the collapse of African cultures and helps us find those those things lost inShow MoreRelatedChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1308 Words   |  6 PagesIn Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the reader is taken on a literary journey to a Nigerian tribe, the Umuofia, to experience first-hand the struggles of a warrior named Okonkwo. At first glance, the novel appears to be written for a very specific audience: scholars familiar with Nigerian history, traditions, and culture. 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5 Performance Objectives of Wegmans Free Essays

Performance objectives of Wegmans Today I decided to do my presentation about Wegmans main performance objectives, first of all I will describe what exactly Wegmans Company is and what are 5 objectives of operations. Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a privately-held, family owned company that was founded in 1916 by the Wegman family. We will write a custom essay sample on 5 Performance Objectives of Wegmans or any similar topic only for you Order Now Based in Rochester, NY, they have raised the bar on the customer shopping experience. The company prides itself on offering exceptional customer service, high quality goods, an abundance of choice, restaurant-quality prepared foods, and beautiful stores and displays. Wegmans has appeared on Fortune’s annual â€Å"100 Best Companies to Work For† list since its inception in 1998, and has ranked among the top 10 for eight consecutive years. And about performance objectives I can say that it is a generic set of performance and indicators that can be used to set the objectives or judge the performance of any type of operation. There are 5 main performance objectives: Quality – â€Å"Doing things right†. Quality is very important aspect for customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, it’s all about providing error free goods and services. Speed – â€Å"Doing things fast† to minimize the time between the order and the availability of the product or service that gives the customer a speed advantage. Dependability –â€Å"Being on time†, means that customers will get their goods and services when they are promised. Flexibility – â€Å"Changing what they do†. It’s about that organizations can change their products and services and change the way they do business. Cost – â€Å"Doing things cheaply†. Low price is a universal attractive objective to customers, which can be achieved by producing goods at lower costs. Let’s begin discussion about Wegmans performance objectives. Quality as I already said is most important from these five and of course it’s important for this company as well. The most important thing employers are doing is prevent problems from occurring in the first place by carefully partnering with suppliers who understand their expectations. Be it a grower, a Wegmans brand manufacturer or a seafood supplier, company makes it its business to know suppliers well, visiting their fields or facilities whenever possible. If a supplier is making a product for Wegmans lebel, they must either be inspected by Wegmans’ own Quality Assurance Auditors or must be certified against one of seven â€Å"Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)† endorsed manufacturing standards. The first shipment of any new Wegmans brand product is scrutinized by company’s Quality Assurance staff to be sure it meets product specifications and food safety requirements. Tests are conducted in Wegmans Test Kitchen lab, or if necessary, by independent laboratories. Additional sampling and testing is done periodically, sometimes prompted by customer or employee comments. Company also pays attention on friendly environment. Each store manager sets the tone for the warm, friendly work environment that employees expect when they work for Wegmans. And in turn, employees greet their customers with warm, friendly, helpful attitudes, which is crucial for any business whose employees regularly interact with customers. So as we can see Company cares much about safety and high quality of products, because the owners of the business know well that high quality can influence customer satisfaction and lead to stable and efficient processes. For Wegmans Company it is very important to produce services and goods as fast as possible, and for this they are doing their best. As we know for fast production it’s important to have very good, qualified employees and good, modern technologies. So Wegmans company cares much about staff which works there, Wegmans’ Chairman Robert Wegman state that: â€Å"Respect, fairness, honesty, and concern are what’s important to people. To my way of thinking, the only way to achieve great customer service is by treating employees right. They have qualified employees in technic and production departments and also they have different training programs for providing better performance of the staff. Wegmans puts a huge emphasis on being an innovator in retail technology. In 1974, Wegmans was one of the first companies to introduce bar-code scanning, and in 1990 Wegmans introduced electronic discounts. The company launched its web site, wegmans. com in 1996. The site not only helps customers save time and money through its on-line ad, but also offers meal solutions, recipes, and even provides the ability to apply for jobs within the company. According to all these company is providing fast production and this is a huge way for the company success. Dependability is extremely important factor for customer trust and satisfaction, as i checked Wegman’s has strong position in it too. Customers are much satisfied how fast the company delivers its products, they love to go for shopping in Wegmans, some of them even said that: â€Å"A trip to Wegman’s is better than a trip to an amusement park†. All these is caused because firm provides additional ervices such as internet shops, which means that you can check out Wegmans products and services online, and even buy there, so save time by this, they also have recipes how to cook many different type and delicious food, they even provide these service by internet, if you go on their online page you can see many videos, about how to cook different foods, so as one Wegmaniac put it, â€Å"Shopping at Wegman’s is an experience. † In addition to a uniqu e shopping experience, including one-third of the space devoted to prepared foods, with another 15,000 sq. ft. or a liquor department, a 300-seat cafe, 70,000 products and some 30 checkout lanes, Wegmans brought relocated 75 Rochester employees to Massachusetts to ensure customers are treated the way Wegmans wants them to be treated. As an addition i would like to say that company managers said that for them it’s very important to know their consumer base and understand the demand. There’s so much diversity in Wegman’s markets these days, they need to know who their customers are and give them what they want. They said they have to give them not only what they are familiar with, but also explore other products that might not be a mainstream item. And in their case, that’s unique vegetables and fruits. Flexibility helps the firm to change over between tasks quickly and without wasting time and capacity. Wegmans provide good flexibility, as the firm is changing over time, they are doing researches and are changing by customer needs, they can change techniques, operations, they are producing new products, are offering many different services. For example last year they did a research and find out that they can be successful in growing certain varieties of organic produce in the northeast. CEO of the firm also said that last year they explored new techniques called a hoop house. It’s a metal frame with a plastic cover, and there they grow heirloom tomatoes and it was very successful. Every month they are offering new food products and for special celebration days they have special recipes, for example for thanksgiving day they offer which Turkey to choose, how to cook it, with what ingredients and so on, all these staff is very likable for customers and that’s a another factor why it is so popular. And the final objective cost is described For Wegmans as follows, they are trying in all ways to keep medium costs and at this time keep all the customers as well. They are doing this very well, because they have many tools for this, for example at a time when commodity and fuel costs are rising dramatically, Wegmans Food Markets announced that it will not increase prices on 40 products that families buy most, to help customers and employees manage their grocery costs. â€Å"We considered the importance of an item to a family when choosing our list of 40,† said President Colleen Wegman. Such things as bananas, pasta, frozen vegetables, and laundry detergent are in most shopping carts every week. They are products that families can’t do without, so what they pay for these items really matters. † The 40 products they selected to hold prices on were those that families buy week in and out. They were mostly Wegmans brand. Why? They have better access to information on the factors that determine costs for their own brand. Their quality makes them already the best value in their categories, and they’re often the top-selling brand. Another good example of cost leadrship of Wegmans is that, In November of 2008, many families were feeling the economic shock of their lives as the nation’s financial system teetered, jobs melted away, and household budgets shrank. Wegmans announced a decision to lower hundreds of prices on frequently purchased products. If customers and employees were facing leaner times, the company reasoned, Wegmans should also live with leaner times. So by performance objectives described above we can see that Wegmans is successful company and is doing best for its customers. How to cite 5 Performance Objectives of Wegmans, Essay examples

Food and Eating for Nutrition & Food Science-MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theFood and Eating for Nutrition Food Science. Answer: The socialisation is a concept that helps in understanding the method of communication via that the growing person learns the values and beliefs of the society the person belongs or in which he/she born. From these phases, the attitude and habit of an individual also form as per the society in which he/she belongs. The food eating habit is varied among different societies. We have to eat for survival; besides, we feel good when eating. Eating is our biological need, and we must satisfy our hunger each day. Eating is strongly a human urge. Food is closely related to the societies, and it is perceived that different societies have diverse food habits. Hence, the study of food and eating habit of the people of different societies provide us valuable ideas or insights about the ways they live in society (Albon, 2007). However, eating is deemed to be an important part of survival; how we eat, with whom and where we eat is not much important. But studying of this types of things helps us t o identify an individual or a group. From the food habit including the food choice, preparation of foods, the way of serving the foods, way of eating foods, and the courses after having foods demonstrate various important things about society. It is widely evident that the women prepare food in various society and the male is responsible for outer work and income for the family. The social constructionism is a social conception and philosophy of knowledge and acumen in sociology plus communication theory, which analysis the development of the mutually constructed understanding of the society that creates the foundation for shared assumption about realism. In our everyday life, we can feel the importance of this theory. It helps in learning sociology as well as help in understanding different perspectives of life and society. The characteristics of the people of any specific society and their beliefs can be recognized at the time of analysing the food habit of the people of that society (Meule, Kbler, 2012). As per the theory the people nature is depended on the society where they live. For instance, in India, the Hindus are mostly vegetarian, and beef is strictly no for the Hindus. On the other hand, the Muslims are generally non-vegetarian and though they eat beef though pork is strictly not allowed in Muslim family for the religious beliefs. In this way, we can see that many habits of the people largely varied for various factors. References Albon, D. (2007). Exploring food and eating patterns using food?maps.Nutrition Food Science,37(4), 254-259. Meule, A., Kbler, A. (2012). Food cravings in food addiction: The distinct role of positive reinforcement.Eating Behaviors,13(3), 252-255.