California’s Regulatory Empire Is Unscathed by the Court’s Chevron Reversal
California’s Regulatory Empire Is Unscathed by the Court’s Chevron Reversal
The state will continue to operate as an island in the land. The Supreme Court’s 6–2 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended the Chevron precedent, sparked something like hysterical vomiting among California reporters and columnists and progressive legal scholars. “An earthquake in U.S. law,” attorney Michael Wara, director of Stanford University’s Climate and Energy Policy Program, called it....
By Will Swaim
The Day Democracy Died in California
The Day Democracy Died in California
On June 20, the California Supreme Court ruled that the Taxpayer Protection Act, a ballot initiative that would have given voters veto power over new taxes, was a violation of the state constitution. The initiative, for which proponents had already gathered nearly 1.5 million signatures to qualify it for the ballot, was a desperate attempt by taxpayers...
By Edward Ring
California Supreme Court removes taxpayer-protection measure from November ballot
California Supreme Court removes taxpayer-protection measure from November ballot
There’s much to be ticked off about following the state Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to remove a taxpayer-protection measure from the November ballot. There’s also a solution, one that’s available to every Californian over the age of 17 years and 364 days: Think like the Apple ad campaign and Vote Different. That opportunity will come in November....
By Will Swaim
Judge orders union to halt UC campus strikes
Judge orders union to halt UC campus strikes
As the sun set last Friday, sanity returned briefly to California when a judge told University of California employees to end a strike aimed at disrupting the last few weeks of the school year. In ordering members of United Auto Workers Local 4811 back to work, Orange County Superior Court Judge Randall Sherman sided with...
By Will Swaim
Julie Su gets grilled in Congress with CPC report
Julie Su gets grilled in Congress with CPC report
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su testified in front of the House Education and Workforce Committee last week and it’s worth your time to watch the grilling she received from California Congresswoman Michelle Steel. Rep. Steel began her questioning by introducing California Policy Center president Will Swaim’s recent reporting on Su, which she entered into the Congressional Record. “I...
By California Policy Center
Baby Bumps and Teacher Benefits: Dispelling CTA Myths About Maternity Leave
Baby Bumps and Teacher Benefits: Dispelling CTA Myths About Maternity Leave
Last month, the California Teachers Association posted on Instagram: “This #WomensHistoryMonth, let’s fix a broken system that leaves educators without any paid disability related to pregnancy!” The fix, California’s largest teachers union asserts, is Assembly Bill 2901, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters). If passed, the state would require school districts and community...
By Sheridan Swanson
The Role of Unions in a Perfect World
The Role of Unions in a Perfect World
The optimal public policy regarding unions may not be realistic in states like California, but that shouldn’t prevent us from performing an occasional what-if. For anyone even slightly right-of-center, what unions have done to this state is a catastrophe. And even for those to the left-of-center, many are realizing, for example, that California’s failing system...
By Edward Ring
Temecula Teachers Want Education, Not Indoctrination
Temecula Teachers Want Education, Not Indoctrination
Many teachers in California are fed up with the political activism of their teachers’ union that is not aligned with the interests of educators and students — and often disrupts and derails classroom instruction in favor of political agendas. A case in point is the United Educators of San Francisco, which recently issued statements calling...
By Andrew Davenport
California Teachers Association is Losing Members
California Teachers Association is Losing Members
California’s political landscape is changing, and that’s cause for celebration. In 2018, the Supreme Court’s Janus ruling prohibited the collection of union dues from public employees as a condition of employment. Before that ruling, with few exceptions, no dues meant no job. By protecting a worker’s right to choose to financially support a union, Janus...
By Chris LaBella
AB 5 Update
AB 5 Update
Editor’s note: There’s so much misinformation about the state of AB 5, that we asked Karen Anderson, founder of Freelancers Against AB 5, for an update. AB5 has not been overturned. It is still the law and continues to wreak havoc across a vast swath of professions and sectors in California—everything from performing arts, event...
By Karen Anderson
The Butler Did It
The Butler Did It
In appointing Laphonza Butler to take Dianne Feinstein’s still-warm U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked his twin, someone of Cirque-du-Soleil-level flexible morality and connections to wealthy donors on all sides of most issues. In that regard, at least, she’s a perfect representative of California politics. She is “simply the best person that I...
By Chris LaBella
A Happy Anniversary for Workers’ Rights
A Happy Anniversary for Workers’ Rights
Five years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the First Amendment right of government workers to opt out of their unions. In Janus vs AFSCME, decided on June 27, 2018, the Court ruled that public-sector employees have the right to opt out of union representation and cannot be forced to pay union dues....
By Houston Reese