Justin Cassera is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s news and commentary, President Trump’s proposed budget aims to eliminate the Legal Services Corporation, Colgate settles a class action lawsuit, and local governments prepare for hurricane season following FEMA cuts.
The Trump administration recently released a budget appendix which requests $21 million for an “orderly closeout” of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The proposed elimination of the independent agency threatens the funding of 130 non-profit legal aid programs, the representation of approximately 6.4 million low-income people, and the employment of staff at legal aid organizations, a group that unionizes at higher rates than the rest of the legal industry. President Trump attempted to eliminate the LSC in 2018, but failed after meeting bipartisan resistance. Defenders of the LSC say the proposed elimination is not cost-justified, citing over fifty studies in the last 25 years that show a positive return on investment.
On Thursday, Colgate-Palmolive Co. and a class of 1,100 retirees agreed to settle a nine-year-old lawsuit regarding pension benefit calculations. The case was originally filed in 2016 by two former employees who alleged that the company was underpaying residual annuities to certain retirees. In 2020, a federal judge ruled in favor of the retirees and ordered Colgate to recalculate the annuity payments, but stayed the proceedings pending appeal. Following several trips to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the parties have finally reached agreement and expect court approval by August 15. The parties did not share details of the agreement.
State and local governments are bracing for hurricane season following staff cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Since President Trump’s inauguration, an already undermanned FEMA has seen several months of additional firings, grant freezes, and canceled initiatives. The agency has been led by “a rotating cast of interim chiefs” who have attempted to shift preparation and response costs to states and localities. Alan Harris, Emergency Manager for Seminole County, Florida said, “We are planning that FEMA is not coming. We pray that FEMA is. But our contingency plan is that they aren’t.” “It is a disaster waiting to happen,” said Robert Verchick, a climate change legal expert at Loyola University in New Orleans. The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and is expected to be more active than usual this year.
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March 12
EPA terminates contract with second-largest union; Florida advances bill restricting public sector unions; Trump administration seeks Supreme Court assistance in TPS termination.
March 11
The partial government shutdown results in TSA agents losing their first full paycheck; the Fifth Circuit upholds the certification of a class of former United Airline workers who were placed on unpaid leave for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons during the pandemic; and an academic group files a lawsuit against the State Department over a policy that revokes and denies visas to noncitizens for their work in fact-checking and content moderation.
March 10
Court rules Kari Lake unlawfully led USAGM, voiding mass layoffs; Florida Senate passes bill tightening union recertification rules; Fifth Circuit revives whistleblower suit against Lockheed Martin.
March 9
6th Circuit rejects Cemex, Board may overrule precedents with two members.
March 8
In today’s news and commentary, a weak jobs report, the NIH decides it will no longer recognize a research fellows’ union, and WNBA contract talks continue to stall as season approaches. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers cut 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent. A loss […]
March 6
The Harvard Graduate Students Union announces a strike authorization vote.