The executive director of California’s largest labor union has resigned from her post after the state charged her and her husband with embezzlement, tax fraud, perjury, and failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes. Then-Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California Executive Director Alma Hernandez and her husband, Jose Moscoso, were charged in a seven-page felony complaint filed with the Sacramento County Superior Court earlier this month. Hernandez had held the position since 2016. The charges, which came about as a result of a multiagency investigation led by California’s Tax Recovery in the Underground Economy Task Force, were made public this week by California Attorney General … Continue reading Leader of California’s largest labor union quits after tax, embezzlement charges

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Colorado agency from distributing pandemic relief funds based on the color of an applicant’s skin. Attorney Wen Fa of Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) told The Epoch Times in an interview the day after the ruling: “This is a great day for equality. It’s a great day for opportunity, and it’s a great day for the Constitution.” Fa previously stated that “Colorado cannot use racial preferences to grant COVID-19 relief,” as reported by The Epoch Times. “Equality before the law is a vital part of the Constitution, and discriminating against individuals based on arbitrary classifications like race is always wrong,” … Continue reading Federal court blocks racially discriminatory pandemic relief in Colorado

Kentucky’s Republican attorney general should be allowed to defend the state’s abortion law in court after the state’s Democratic governor refused to do so, the Supreme Court heard Oct. 12. Although it was the court’s first abortion-related case since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s addition to the bench last year gave its conservative wing a 6–3 majority, Kentucky’s abortion law itself wasn’t at issue at the hearing. The high court examined only whether Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron should be allowed to intervene in the case on behalf of his state after the trial court invalidated the law and its decision was … Continue reading Kentucky AG asks Supreme Court to allow him to represent state in abortion case governor doesn’t want to pursue

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling extending the application of California’s wage-and-hour laws, because flight attendants who report to a California airport to begin their multi-day, multi-state work shift actually spend the lion’s share of their workweek outside of the state. The case is Delta Air Lines v. Oman, court file 21-396, an appeal from the often-reversed U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The respondents, who are four current or former flight attendants who seek to represent a class of Delta Air Lines flight attendants who have performed work in California, have until … Continue reading Delta asks Supreme Court to limit scope of California wage-and-hour laws

A Colorado businessman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the state to block it from distributing pandemic relief funds based on the color of an applicant’s skin. The civil rights lawsuit, Collins v. Meyers, was filed on Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The defendant, Patrick Meyers, is being sued in his official capacity as executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Resort Meeting Source, the event-planning business of plaintiff Stephen E. Collins, sustained revenue losses that can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a … Continue reading Colorado sued over discriminatory pandemic relief program

The Supreme Court won’t consider a challenge by Cal Cartage Transportation Express, a trucking company, to California’s unusually restrictive worker-classification law that virtually outlaws independent contracting. Independent truckers say the California law known as AB5, which took effect Jan. 1, 2020, will kill their industry by preventing companies from hiring them. The statute, which was pushed by organized labor to crack down on the hard-to-unionize so-called gig economy represented by companies such as Uber and Lyft, was enacted ostensibly to help workers by preventing their “misclassification.” The law is unpopular in California’s business community. The Supreme Court has yet to decide if it will take up … Continue reading Supreme Court declines to hear trucker challenge of California anti-gig law

A Muslim terrorist’s lawyer asked the Supreme Court to allow his client to depose two former Central Intelligence Agency contractors about waterboarding at CIA black sites in connection with a Polish criminal investigation into that nation’s involvement in the CIA’s clandestine detention and interrogation program. Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, 50, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Zubaydah, was “an associate and longtime terrorist ally of Osama bin Laden,” according to the government. Respondent Zubaydah is “the first high-value terrorist captured after the 9/11 attacks,” according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, “Although … Continue reading Terrorist asks Supreme Court to let him depose ex-CIA contractors for Polish criminal probe

District of Columbia residents aren’t entitled to voting representation in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Supreme Court ruled, affirming a lower court decision. The ruling came after the House approved legislation in April to make D.C. the 51st state; the bill stalled in the Senate. Democrats support the measure, arguing that all U.S. citizens should be represented in Congress, while Republicans oppose it because they believe the framers of the Constitution didn’t want D.C. to become a state, and because the new state’s two senators would almost certainly be Democrats in the Democratic Party stronghold. The case is Castañon v. United States, court file … Continue reading Supreme Court upholds constitutional ban on DC voting rights

The Supreme Court has decided to hear an appeal about ownership of a valuable painting that was seized by the Nazis from a German Jewish family during the Holocaust and is now on display in an art museum in Madrid. The case is Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, court file 20-1566. The foundation is an agency of the Kingdom of Spain. The petitioners are: David Cassirer, a descendant of the original painting owner, Lilly Cassirer; an estate; and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. “This is a miscarriage of justice that has been going on for way too long,” … Continue reading Supreme Court to hear case of ownership of painting stolen by Nazis now worth millions

A federal court struck down two Texas state laws that forced voters to refrain from wearing clothing with political messages on them in or near polling places as unconstitutional infringements of free speech. According to Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a national public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California, that represented plaintiff Jillian Ostrewich, the laws gave thousands of election workers across the state unlimited discretion to confront any voter wearing a T-shirt, hat, or button related to any past, present, or future candidate, political party, or ballot measure. “This is an important win for Texans’ free speech rights,” PLF attorney Wen Fa … Continue reading Federal judge strikes down Texas polling-place dress code

A federal judge has tossed charges against a Michigan physician who had been accused of performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls, and accused the prosecutors of vindictively pursuing new charges after he previously struck down as unconstitutional an earlier version of the federal anti-FGM law. FGM is “a procedure performed on a woman or girl to alter or injure her genitalia for non-medical reasons” and “most often involves the partial or total removal of her external genitalia,” according to UNICEF. In some countries where the practice persists, “it is seen as a rite of passage into womanhood, while others see … Continue reading Federal judge tosses female genital mutilation charges

The pork industry is asking the Supreme Court to strike down a voter-approved law in California that would ban the sale of pork in the state from hogs raised anywhere in the world that fail to meet the state’s production standard requiring each sow be given a specific amount of space that exceeds industry norms. California officials are drafting implementing regulations for the law, which supporters promoted as an animal welfare measure, that will take effect Jan. 1, 2022. To continue selling pork to the 40 million consumers who live in the state, which represents about 15 percent of the U.S. pork … Continue reading Industry asks Supreme Court to invalidate California law regulating treatment of hogs outside its borders

Government workers involved in four separate lawsuits are asking the Supreme Court to compel labor unions to return forced fees illegally seized from their paychecks that they say the unions refused to refund after losing a major case in 2018. The appeal from a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Brice v. California Faculty Association, was filed with the Supreme Court last week, a spokesperson for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation told The Epoch Times. As of press time, it didn’t appear to have been docketed yet by the high court. The cases were all filed with free legal … Continue reading Government workers in California and Oregon take fight over forced union dues to Supreme Court

Parents and a civil rights group are asking a court to force California to immediately halt Aztec prayers in public school classrooms that are required by the California State Board of Education’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. This novel curriculum includes a section on “Affirmation, Chants, and Energizers.” Among these is the “In Lak Ech Affirmation,” which invokes five Aztec deities—Tezkatlipoka, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe Totek, and Hunab Ku. The pagan prayers address the deities both by name and traditional titles, recognize them as sources of power and knowledge, invoke their assistance, and give them thanks. Aztec religious practices included the cutting out of human hearts … Continue reading California parents seek court injunction blocking Aztec prayers in school

Evidence seized by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in a warrantless vehicle search near the international border with Canada cannot be used in state prosecutions, a divided Vermont Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 24. Vermont’s high court rebuked the CBP. Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution, which “protects individuals from unreasonable searches or seizures ‘by any officer or messenger,’” guarantees “individuals the right to privacy in their vehicles and to containers within those vehicles,” Justice William D. Cohen wrote for the court in the 3–2 decision. Justice Karen Carroll authored the dissenting opinion, which Justice Harold Eaton Jr. joined. They held … Continue reading Vermont Supreme Court rebukes Border Patrol, excludes seized evidence

A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4–3 to take up a lawsuit from Wisconsin voters over the state’s redistricting process that may lead to the court drawing up the state’s new electoral map for 2022 if the Democratic governor and Republican state legislature fail to agree on one. The lawsuit, Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, was filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Aug. 23 invoking the court’s original jurisdiction. Although the state legislature and the governor, currently Tony Evers, normally approve new legislative maps, some Wisconsinites fear that a divided government will lead to an impasse that will require a judicial plan … Continue reading Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to consider redrawing state’s electoral map

A barbeque food truck operator in North Carolina is suing a local government after it enacted protectionist regulations that increased food truck permitting fees by close to 8,000 percent. The lawsuit, Shirley v. Town of Farmville, was filed Sept. 21, in state court in Pitt County, North Carolina, on behalf of plaintiff Mark Shirley by Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California. Shirley resides in Walstonburg, just west of Farmville. “Many restaurants faced difficulties throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jessica Thompson, a PLF attorney representing Shirley, told The Epoch Times. “And when so many small businesses are fighting to … Continue reading North Carolina food truck operator fights protectionism

The Supreme Court sided with Ohio in putting on hold an appeals court ruling from June that threw out a conviction and death sentence imposed on prisoner August Cassano, who complained that a trial court denied him his Sixth Amendment right to represent himself. An execution date had not yet been scheduled. Late on Sept. 20, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ordered that the June 17 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit was stayed, giving Cassano’s jailer time to file a petition for certiorari, or review, of the appeals court decision with the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh did not provide … Continue reading Supreme Court sides with state, stays retrial order in death-penalty case