Today’s News & Commentary – March 7, 2018

Public school teachers in West Virginia ended their strike yesterday when the state Senate agreed to grant teachers a five percent raise and voted to ratify the pay raise 34-0.  Inspired by the actions in West Virginia, teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky have reportedly been thinking about striking as well.  Read more about the strike’s relationship to West Virginia’s labor history and our current political moment here and here.

The controversy over President Trump’s proposed steal and aluminum tariffs continue.  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan publicly disagreed with President Trump, and Gary Cohn, head of the National Economic Council and an important economic advisor to the Trump Administration, resigned over the issue.  The actions of Speaker Ryan and Gary Cohn highlight the divisions among Republicans over the party’s trade policy.

Yesterday, the Justice Department filed suit against California seeking an injunction against three California immigration laws.  The complaint alleges that these laws “reflect a deliberate effort by California to obstruct the United States’ enforcement of federal immigration law, to regulate private entities that seek to cooperate with federal authorities consistent with their obligations under federal law, and to impede consultation and communication between federal and state law enforcement officials.”  The Justice Department asks the court to find these laws unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause.  Read more here.