Week in Review: October 28, 2022

Announcements

The Buckeye Institute responded to the city of Cincinnati’s arguments in Schaad v. Alder. Buckeye’s reply brief showed that the city ignored the fact that Ohio’s emergency-based local income tax system violated the Due Process protections afforded by the U.S. and Ohio constitutions and made the Orwellian argument that an expansion of municipal taxing authority was instead a “limitation.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal brief in Kolkowski v. Ashtabula Area Teachers Association with the Ohio Supreme Court. Buckeye is asking the court to recognize that a union—which Buckeye’s client is not a member of—cannot force her to accept union legal representation to arbitrate her workplace grievance.

Last week, WILL asked the asked the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to temporarily pause the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program, on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association. The lawsuit was the first and only lawsuit to have reached SCOTUS, which was unprecedented for both the suit and WILL. While it was dismissed, WILL President and General Counsel, Rick Esenberg, and Deputy Counsel, Dan Lennington, wrote in the National Review about this recent challenge in litigation. “It’s possible that no one will be able to bring a successful lawsuit in this matter. If you think there’s something wrong with that, you’re right.”

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy filed suit on behalf of Louisiana attorney Tommy Badeaux, challenging the Biden Administration’s illegal student loan debt cancellation program.

In a major win for Arizona taxpayers—thanks to the work of the Goldwater Institute—a state appellate court has declared that Pima County officials violated the state Constitution when they adopted a multimillion-dollar subsidy for the World View company, a business that’s supposed to take passengers on rides to the stratosphere in specially modified high-altitude balloons. In 2016, the Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of taxpayers to challenge this “balloondoggle”, which devoted some $15 million in public resources to the private benefit of a for-profit corporation yet has generated no real benefit for the taxpayers footing the bill. Read more here.

WILL successfully repealed an unlawful ordinance after sending a demand letter to the Town of New Chester, Wisconsin. WILL’s client had previously handed out political materials on public land in the Town, but the town recently adopted an ordinance which made such activities unlawful. The demand letter made clear that the ban was an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech, and demanded that the Town immediately repeal the ordinance. Last week, the Town voted to repeal the unlawful ordinance in its entirety.

Institute for Reforming Government is releasing the first part of its upcoming state K-12 policy report, The Classroom Comeback: From Worst to First, that details solutions to close the nation’s worst achievement gap and make Wisconsin the top state in education.