In February, CIR filed a lawsuit against the SBA and USDA on behalf of Ultima Services Corporation challenging a federal program that sets aside government contracts for minority-owned businesses, called the Section 8(a) program. Since then, the agencies have turned to their well-worn playbook to try to have the case dismissed before the district court can reach the merits.
The USDA and SBA have moved to dismiss the case on the ...
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On June 26, CIR filed a reply brief in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the enforcement of Section 3550, a California law that prohibits public employers from criticizing public employee unions. CIR is challenging Section 3550 as unconstitutional, but while litigation is in progress, public officials in California are subject to the law’s speech restrictions. Unless an injunction is granted, public employers will continue to ...
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In Barke v. Banks, CIR is challenging California law Section 3550, which directly prohibits public employers from criticizing government unions. But legislatures around the country are silencing union criticism in other ways—namely by mandating labor peace agreements. An LPA is a contract that an employer signs with a union before the union begins to organize. The union agrees not to disrupt business—through strikes, picketing, boycotts, etc.—and the employer helps facilitate ...
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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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In Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to take an important first step in restraining the nearly unchecked power of independent agencies by ruling that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional. The CFPB is an independent agency in charge of regulating consumer debt products. The law creating the CFPB structured the agency to be governed by a single director who could only ...
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On July 11, CIR filed a motion for partial summary judgment on behalf of New York civil servant Salvatore Davi. After months of discovery, including depositions of numerous New York officials and review of thousands of documents, the record demonstrates that Davi was engaged in a private, after-hours discussion on Facebook in which he never mentioned his job and which concerned a significant issue of public policy: the appropriate goal ...
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