On March 31, U.S. District Judge Clifton L. Corker ruled that Ultima Services Corporation has standing to sue the USDA and SBA for racial discrimination for setting aside government contracts through the Section 8(a) Program — which reserves certain federal contracts for minority-owned small businesses. Ultima filed suit against the agencies for setting aside administrative and technical support contracts, which for nearly two decades, it had bid on, won, adeptly ...
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On March 3, U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman ruled that the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) violated Sal Davi’s right to free speech when officers demoted him over comments he made in a private Facebook conversation. Davi had criticized current welfare programs for encouraging dependence rather than helping people become self-sufficient, and officers at the OTDA alleged that his comments demonstrated ...
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The Center for Individual Rights has filed suit against the University of Pittsburgh and several affiliated organizations for disciplining Dr. Norman Wang in response to a study that he published on the development of affirmative action over the last fifty years. The publicly-funded university has violated long established First Amendment principles of academic freedom that are meant to ensure that universities are places of free inquiry and not narrow ideological ...
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CIR has filed suit against the State of Oregon for establishing a coronavirus relief fund that is limited to black Oregonians. Setting aside government money for a race-exclusive fund violates the Fourteenth Amendment and federal anti-discrimination law.
In July, The Contingent, an Oregon nonprofit that primarily serves black Oregonians, and the Black United Fund requested $62 million from the state to establish The Oregon Cares Fund. The Oregon Cares Fund would ...
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On October 15, CIR filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit in Barke v. Banks, which challenges Section 3550 — a gag law that prohibits statements from public employers that “deter or discourage” union membership. CIR is appealing the district court’s decision to dismiss the suit for lack of standing.
The district court maintains that school boards, city councils, and other local elected bodies are mere agents of the state government, ...
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The Supreme Court has denied Guam’s petition for certiorari, in Davis v. Guam, bringing a successful close to CIR’s nine-year fight to overturn the territory’s racially restrictive plebiscite law. With this order, CIR’s recent Ninth Circuit victory will stand in its entirety, and Guam will not be allowed to conduct a vote that discriminates on the basis of race.
In July, lead counsel Gibson Dunn’s Luke Townsend won a major victory ...
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CIR is starting off the decade with two major new cases! In California, CIR is fighting a gag-law that prohibits public employers from criticizing unions. At the federal level, CIR is challenging a race-based set-aside law for government contracts.
You can read all about CIR’s latest work in the newest issue of the Docket Report.
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