Articles

Weekly litigation report — July 14, 2018

July 14, 2018 | By JAMES BURLING

PLF gets into a Santa suit to fight for free speech This week, PLF filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Ecology for kicking Santa out of their public lobby because they didn’t like him spreading Christmas cheer. We’re representing Freedom Foundation, a right-to-work think tank that sends canvassers out to state agencies ...

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Public sector unions and gifts of public funds

July 11, 2018 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

On June 27, the Supreme Court held in Janus v. AFSCME that workers’ First Amendment rights prohibit states from authorizing public sector unions to take money from non-members without the workers’ express and clear consent. In response, some advocates suggest that states could avoid the First Amendment issue by simply allocating tax dol ...

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Weekly litigation report—December 2, 2017

December 02, 2017 | By JAMES BURLING

Motion for summary judgment to be filed in Minerva Dairy, PLF testifies before Congress on WOTUS, and the California Supreme Court upholds compulsory interest arbitration for agricultural employers. … ...

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Compulsory union subsidies on the chopping block

September 28, 2017 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The First Amendment protects the right to speak and associate as well as the right to refrain from speaking and associating. Today the Supreme Court decided to hear the First Amendment case – Janus v. AFSCME – that will determine whether non-union public employees must continue to subsidize the very unions they do not want … ...

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Weekly litigation report — September 2, 2017

September 02, 2017 | By JAMES BURLING

This week’s topics: Can the executive branch be the judicial branch? When is “just compensation” unjust? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? … ...

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The First Amendment protects speech that contradicts unions' policy preferences

June 06, 2017 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

This week PLF filed its opening brief in the Ninth Circuit in Associated Builders and Contractors-California Cooperation Committee v. Becerra, which challenges a California law that threatens to cut funding to speech contrary to unions’ policy preferences. The lawsuit targets SB 954, which changed the way employers can distribute money under ...

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Supreme Court won’t consider exclusive representation laws . . . for now

February 27, 2017 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The Supreme Court often prefers that issues “percolate” in the lower courts for some time so that Circuit court and state supreme court judges have an opportunity to address all facets and implications of the arguments prior to high court review. It ensures that the arguments and theories in cases granted by the Supreme Court … ...

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Weekly litigation report — December 10, 2016

December 10, 2016 | By JAMES BURLING

PLF supports freedom to work Overcriminalization and environmental law Good decision in California endangered species case Union trespass onto private property Shorelines and the public trust Department of Labor shenanigans challenge Take home liability PLF supports freedom to work Today we filed this brief in Twist Architecture v. Oregon Bd. of Ar ...

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Arizona Supreme Court : Taxpayers must subsidize public employee union lobbyists

September 13, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

More than two years after oral argument, a majority of the Arizona Supreme Court today sided with Phoenix unions to require taxpayers to pay for union lobbyists ostensibly employed by the police department.  The court split 3-2 in the case, Cheatham v. DiCiccio. Justice Clint Bolick—former Goldwater Institute counsel for the plaintiffs, William ...