Following national coverage of the Minneapolis school district’s race-based employment policies, Liz Collin Reports hosted a retired Los Angeles teacher who saw the same thing happen in his district over 15 years ago.
Phil Pearson worked as a special-ed teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest district in California and second largest in the country, when a similar rule to move teachers based on race was put into place.
Read More
An Arizona mother, Sarra L., filed a lawsuit Wednesday, jointly represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Goldwater Institute, against the Arizona Department of Child Safety (AZDHS) to protect her right to due process and clear her name.
“Due process and the separation of powers should have protected Sarra from the Department of Child Safety’s abusive prosecution. DCS has a track record of ignoring due process that should protect innocent parties from severe punishment,” said Adi Dynar, an attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation. “Sarra is seeking to right the wrong done to her and prevent other parents from facing a similar fate in the future.”
Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition that would have reversed an appellate court’s decision that is allowing Thomas Jefferson (TJ) High School for Science and Technology to continue using its controversial admissions policy for the incoming freshman class.
After the court’s Monday anouncement, Fairfax County Public Schools praised the decision in a statement.
“We continue to believe our new plan for TJ admissions is merit-based and race-blind,” Fairfax County School Board Chair Stella Pekarsky said. “We are confident that after considering the facts and the law, the appeals court will decide that our plan meets all the legal requirements and guarantees every qualified student will have the chance of being admitted to the finest public science and technology high school in the country.”
Read More
The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is following up a 2021 property rights win in the U.S. Supreme Court with a lawsuit over right-to-retrieve law in Virginia, a key piece of dog hunting practice in the Commonwealth. The PLF says that allowing hunters to go onto private property to retrieve dogs can harm property owners’ privacy, safety, and business.
“A fundamental aspect of property rights is the ability to exclude trespassers from your property. The government cannot grant third-party access that violates your property rights and disturbs your use of your property even if that access is in the form of retrieving a hunting dog,” the PLF said in a Thursday announcement of the lawsuit. “The Supreme Court made this clear in PLF’s 2021 win in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, which held that grants of access like this are uncompensated takings of property under the Fifth Amendment.”
Read More
Legislation being considered by the Tennessee General Assembly would eliminate the current practice of state courts giving deference to state agencies in interpreting statutes or rules in a contested case. If passed, the law would require that state courts interpret the state or rule de novo or from the beginning or start.
Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) presented the bill, SB2285, Wednesday to the Senate Government Operations Committee, of which he is a member. While committee members often present their bills from their usual chair, Bell told Chairman Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) he would be going to the podium, expecting he might be using his hands a bit.
Read More
A federal judge Friday ruled that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) officials discriminated against Asian students by lowering the bar for admission to Thomas Jefferson High School (TJHS) in a push for “diversity.”
“This is a monumental win for parents and students here in Fairfax County, but also for equal treatment in education across the country,” Erin Wilcox an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) said in a press release. “We hope this ruling sends the message that government cannot choose who receives the opportunity to attend public schools based on race or ethnicity.”
Read More
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the national eviction moratorium mandated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is unconstitutional. The court said in its ruling that the matter ultimately needed to be resolved by Congress.
The three-judge panel ruled that the CDC engaged in federal overreach by mandating that tenants who are unable to pay their rent and are in breach of their rental agreements may not be evicted. The CDC had implemented a moratorium in response to millions of people losing their jobs due to governors shutting down their state economies to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Read More
Earlier this week, Florida District Judge Marcia Morales Howard issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the Biden administration. The lawsuit was initiated by a farmer who said a debt relief program to “socially disadvantaged farmers” is discriminatory.
In the $1.9 billion stimulus packaged signed by Biden earlier this year, approximately $4 billion of the plan is designated to assist exclusively farmers of color for debt relief through direct payments up to 120 percent of the farmer’s outstanding debt.
The order by Howard prevents the USDA from distributing the payments directly to farmers enrolled in the program.
Read More
A group of about 5,000 community members including parents, students, and staff are suing the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) Board and Superintendent Scott Braband over changes to admission procedures at magnet school Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). The lawsuit complaint filed Wednesday argues that the changes were meant to reduce the number of Asian-American students at the school.
Read More
by Dan McCaleb A Wayne County woman filed a lawsuit Monday challenging a Michigan policy that allows counties to seize an individual’s property to settle back taxes, sell it, and keep all of the money from the sale. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit organization that defends Americans against…
Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania farm owner who said the government effectively took her property without paying for it. Rose Knick won the victory in the case of Knick v. Township of Scott. In making its ruling, SCOTUS overturned a 1985 precedent,…
Read More
Boys can now compete on what were previously girls-only dance teams following a Tuesday settlement by the Minnesota State High School League. Dmitri Moua and Zachary Greenwald, two high school students in Minnesota, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) after they…
Read More
by Neetu Chandak Asian-American parents and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against New York City officials Thursday over a plan that would increase admissions for black and Hispanic students to elite schools in the city. Black and Hispanic students make up 68 percent of the city’s population with…
Read More