On October 25, CIR President Terry Pell helped take the fight for teacher freedom to the Pennsylvania state Legislature. He testified in support of proposed legislation designed to implement the Supreme Court’s decision last summer in Janus v. AFSCME along with former Secretary of Education William Bennett (now Chairman of “Conservative Leaders for Education”) and State Policy Network expert Vincent Vernuccio
Pennsylvania is one of several states that is considering a ...
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Former CIR plaintiff and California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs has told the inside story of her decades long struggle against teachers unions in her new book, Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country.
For twenty-eight years, Friedrichs served as a elementary school teacher in California public schools. She’s often told the story of how she first realized the ...
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On October 31st, The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Frank v. Gaos, a case in which CIR filed a supporting (amicus) brief. At issue in Gaos is the abusive use of a feature of some class action settlements, known as cy pres awards, in which lower courts award funds to third party charities. Thanks to cy pres, plaintiffs in these class actions sometimes never see a dime of recovery.
CIR’s ...
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On October 10, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument in Davis v. Guam, a case challenging a race-exclusive plebiscite planned by the Government of Guam. Guam resident Arnold (Dave) Davis was turned away from registering to vote because he is not descended from a native Chamorro. The race-based restriction was struck down by the US District Court for the District ...
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It’s been over five years since the workers at Gerawan Farming voted to dercitify the United Farm Workers. The UFW was certified at Gerawan in 1990, but then abandoned the workers for nearly two decades. When the UFW returned in 2012, they demanded that Gerawan’s 5,000 employees, few of whom were present for the 1990 election, pay union dues or else lose their employment.
The workers chose a third option: they ...
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