COURT: OKAY TO FIRE POET FOR SLANDERING ISRAEL

Poet Loses Case After Slandering Israel - Maryclaire Dale (AP/Anchorage Daily News)
An appeals court in Philadelphia ruled Wednesday against former New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka, who lost his job after suggesting Israel had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Baraka had claimed his First Amendment rights were violated, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, said the firing was legislative and not political in nature.