Monaghan, T more domino
<p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>2018 9th circuit</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/supreme-court-california-disclosure-law-donors-497554"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/supreme-court-california-disclosure-law-donors-497554</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Supreme Court nixes California disclosure law in blow to dark-money opponents</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The high court ruled a state law requiring not-for-profit organizations that raise money in California to disclose their donors violated the donors' First Amendment rights.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court has ordered California to stop collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities, siding with a nonprofit group with links to billionaire Charles Koch.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Americans for Prosperity Foundation, backed by political megadonors Charles Koch and the late David Koch, brought one of the suits. | David Zalubowski, File/AP Photo</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By JOSH GERSTEIN and ZACH MONTELLARO</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>07/01/2021 </b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Court dealt a blow Thursday to efforts to rein in so-called dark money political groups, issuing a ruling striking down California’s policy of demanding donor lists from nonprofit organizations.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The high court split 6-3 along ideological lines</b> in its decision on a pair of cases challenging that California requirement, which forced non-profits raising money in California to give the state copies of federal tax forms containing donor information.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion for the court, ruled that California’s “blanket demand” for that information “is facially unconstitutional.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“When it comes to the freedom of association, the protections of the First Amendment are triggered not only by actual restrictions on an individual’s ability to join with others to further shared goals. The risk of a chilling effect on association is enough,” Roberts wrote for the court.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The ruling could have a political impact, complicating donor-disclosure requirements for groups that often pour large sums into elections but stop just short of the “express advocacy” for or against candidates that triggers stricter rules on revealing the sources of donations.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The court ruled that the California mandate for groups to turn over donor information to the state, even if kept confidential, was overly broad.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The point is that a reasonable assessment of the burdens imposed by disclosure should begin with an understanding of the extent to which the burdens are unnecessary, and that requires narrow tailoring,” Roberts wrote.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Roberts’ ruling did not address the federal government’s authority to require the filing of donor information with the Internal Revenue Service. Most charities are still required to file lists of donors giving over $5,000 in a given year, but in 2018 the IRS dropped the requirement for some politically-oriented groups.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The justices’ ruling Thursday addressed lawsuits filed by two politically active, conservative nonprofit organizations in 2015. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Americans for Prosperity Foundation, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">backed by political megadonors Charles Koch and the late David Koch, brought one of the suits. The other was filed by the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Thomas More Law Center, </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a Michigan-based legal organization active on behalf of Catholic causes that was bankrolled by Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both organizations argued that California rules requiring filing of donor lists with state officials violate the First Amendment by discouraging individuals from giving and by exposing them to threats and harassment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2016, AFP persuaded a federal judge in Los Angeles to issue a permanent injunction against the requirement. The judge said the state rarely used the information, but often disclosed it accidentally with charities’ public tax filings.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, two years later, <b>a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed that ruling, </b>holding that the state had a legitimate need for the data and that the Koch-founded group had not shown a significant burden on donors.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unclear how the Supreme Court’s conclusions will impact similar donor-disclosure requirements at the federal level. The Internal Revenue Service has generally done a better job of keeping filings it receives confidential.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Part of Roberts’ opinion does, however, open the door to challenges to other disclosure requirements: “While exacting scrutiny does not require that disclosure regimes be the least restrictive means of achieving their ends, it does require that they be narrowly tailored to the government’s asserted interest,” he wrote.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in dissent and joined by the two other liberal-leaning justices, did however predict that the decision would open the floodgates to weakening disclosure requirements.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Today’s analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bull’s-eye,” she wrote. “Regulated entities who wish to avoid their obligations can do so by vaguely waving toward First Amendment ‘privacy concerns.’”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The high court rulings could have a broader impact on efforts by Democrats to broaden and increase disclosure requirements, particularly for groups that run ads that mention federal candidates while stopping short of explicitly endorsing or opposing them.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The For the People Act, congressional Democrats’ massive campaign and ethics reform legislation that is stalled in the Senate amid Democratic infighting and a successful Republican filibuster last week, also contains provisions that would remake campaign finance disclosure law if enacted.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stands with Sens. Raphael Warnock and Amy Klobuchar while speaking with reporters before a vote on the For the People Act.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONGRESS</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Senate Republicans block Dems’ sweeping elections reform bill</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BY MARIANNE LEVINE AND ZACH MONTELLARO]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amid the hundreds of pages of the bill is a long-fought-over proposal that would dramatically expand which organizations are required to disclose donors and expenditures if they spend a nominal amount on communications that broadly mention federal candidates.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republicans are now broadly opposed to such measures, a turnabout from two decades ago when prominent GOP leaders backed robust disclosure rules as an alternative to attempts to restrict donations to campaigns and outside groups.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Republicans are in favor of disclosure,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a 2000 interview. “Why would a little disclosure be better than a lot of disclosure?”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McConnell has said that soon after those comments — and the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act despite his opposition in 2002 — he concluded that such rules for groups that don’t engage in express advocacy violate the First Amendment. In the AFP case decided Thursday, he filed an amicus brief saying donor-disclosure requirements should face the “strictest scrutiny” when reviewed in court.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While AFP and the Thomas More Law Center</b> unsurprisingly garnered support for their legal challenges from other conservative organizations, several liberal groups and First Amendment advocates also urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of donor privacy in the cases.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the LGBTQ rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and others argued that the justices should hold that California’s failure to keep the donor information confidential violated the conservative groups’ rights.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">However, the liberal organizations’ brief — which drew significant interest from conservative justices at oral arguments — pushed the court toward a narrow decision that would not upset disclosure requirements for political campaigns or address the rights of regulators with a better track record for confidentiality to gather donor information.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FILED UNDER: CAMPAIGN FINANCE, CALIFORNIA, U.S. SUPREME COURT,}}</font></div><p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the nation on brett K pryor:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-family: " mercury="Mercury" display="Display" a="A" b="B" font-size="font-size" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" word-spacing="word-spacing" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color">he religion wars only intensified when Bush nominated William Pryor to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Because he was up for an appellate seat, Pryor generated more adamant Democratic opposition than had Holmes. Senators probed his hard-line beliefs on abortion, church-state separation, and LGBTQ rights, including questioning him about his rescheduling of a family vacation to Disney World because it coincided with “Gay Day,”and an <a href="https://www.findlawimages.com/efile/supreme/briefs/02-102/02-102.mer.ami.states.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">amicus brief</a> he authored as Alabama attorney general in the landmark Supreme Court case <i style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Lawrence v. Texas</i>, in which he argued that gay sex should remain criminalized because the Court had “never recognized a fundamental right to engage in sexual activity outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage, let alone to engage in homosexual sodomy.” Pryor supporters, again, portrayed legitimate questions about a nominee’s position on abortion—a constitutional right that enjoys majority support among not only Americans as a whole but also among Catholics—as a de facto litmus test against Catholics.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-family: " mercury="Mercury" display="Display" a="A" b="B" font-size="font-size" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" word-spacing="word-spacing" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color">“Their intention is smearing senators as anti-religious for asking questions,” said Peter Montgomery, senior fellow at People for the American Way, which has been in the thick of judicial nominations for decades. “In doing that they’re hoping to intimidate the senator somehow. They raise these questions when senators are asking the nominees about important issues like <i style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Roe v. Wade</i>.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-family: " mercury="Mercury" display="Display" a="A" b="B" font-size="font-size" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" word-spacing="word-spacing" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color">Throughout this entire period, Kavanaugh was specifically enlisted by the Bush White House to engage the Catholic community, including about judges. He was asked, along with Karl Rove, to address supporters of the Catholic magazine <i style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Crisis</i>. He also spoke about judicial nominations to a Pro-Life Pilgrimage from<b> Legatus, a conservative Catholic network created by Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan</b>, for Catholic business leaders who have “committed themselves to study, live and spread the Catholic faith in their business and personal lives.” And he volunteered to be the office’s specialist on faith-based initiatives, “given my general interest and my previous religious liberty work in my pre-WH days.” Kavanaugh had served on the Religious Liberty Practice Group at the Federalist Society; in private practice he authored an <a href="https://www.au.org/sites/default/files/2018-07/Santa%20Fe%20Independent%20School%20Dist%20v%20Doe%20amicus%20brief.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">amicus brief</a> in a school-prayer case, arguing that student-delivered prayers at football games were constitutional (the Supreme Court held that they were not).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-family: " mercury="Mercury" display="Display" a="A" b="B" font-size="font-size" px="px" outline="outline" padding="padding" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" line-height="line-height" word-spacing="word-spacing" color="color" rgb="rgb"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was during the Pryor nomination fight that conservative advocacy groups first aggressively advanced the claim that Catholics were being excluded from the bench by the left. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Committee for Justice, led by former George H.W. Bush White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, and the Ave Maria List, a political-action committee funded by Monaghan, ran newspaper ads in support of Pryor that targeted moderate and swing-state Democratic senators. The ads featured a picture of a closed courtroom door with a sign over it reading, “Catholics Need Not Apply”—the first of the phrase’s many appearances in confirmation campaigns....</span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><h1 class="title" itemprop="name" style="font-size: large; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1; letter-spacing: -0.05em; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VOICES: Media fails to reveal anti-union agenda of labor 'experts' in Tennessee</font></h1><div id="node-13099" class="node node-type-article node-promoted clearfix" style="font-size: small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="article-content"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Chris Brooks</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The United Auto Workers (UAW) are going in for round two at the Chattanooga Volkswagen (VW) plant. The National Labor Relations Board will be conducting a union representation election at the East Tennessee factory on Dec. 3 and 4. The election, which was <a href="http://www.labornotes.org/2015/10/volkswagen-reverses-its-union-neutrality-workers-say" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">contested by Volkswagen</a>, is for a so-called "micro-bargaining unit" of approximately 162 maintenance employees, who work to maintain the machines and assembly lines in the plant.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">The UAW is hoping that a micro-unit election will provide a different result from the previous, internationally scrutinized union vote at the Chattanooga plant that ended in failure for pro-union workers.</span><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In that election, out-of-state corporate front groups, such as Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform,<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/business/outsiders-not-auto-plant-battle-uaw-in-tennessee.html?_r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">descended on Chattanooga</a> to join the chorus of Republican state leaders, such as Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, in condemning unions and spreading nightmarish fantasies of the devastation that would be unleashed should the UAW be voted in.</span><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> The results were announced on Valentines Day 2014, with workers voting 712 to 626 against the union. As a result, the </span><b>Chattanooga Volkswagen plant remains the lone factory in the Volkswagen Group that has no official mechanism, through either a recognized union or a works council, through which workers can formally articulate and advocate on behalf of their interests.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the failed election, <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16505/emails_show_bob_corkers_chief_of_staff_coordinated_with_anti_uaw_groups" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">documents leaked to Nashville's News Channel 5</a> exposed the extent to which Republican politicians, professional anti-union consultants, and employer groups coordinated their efforts to defeat the UAW<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. John Logan, professor of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University, said that this may be the first time in U.S. history that the government and third party groups, but not the employer, were actively involved in an anti-union campaign, <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23197-truthout-interviews-john-logan-on-the-antiunion-campaign-in-tennessee" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">which Logan described</a> as "top-down class warfare in Tennessee" and "a zero-sum ideal where the freedom of the wealthy and powerful is premised on the subordination of everyone else."</span> Much and more of the coordinated attack on the union organizing drive has been <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22842-the-firm-behind-the-anti-uaw-videos-in-chattanooga" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">reported in progressive media</a>, but with all the examples of outright political threats and overt anti-union propaganda, the more banal, and therefore normalized, examples of how the business press has presented anti-union perspectives with an air of supposed objective authority often got lost in the mix.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One example was <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/10/how-tennessee-papers-are-helping-the-anti-union/197987" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">a report by Media Matters for America</a>, a progressive research and information center, which criticized prominent Tennessee newspapers for aiding the antiunion efforts by "omitting critical context in their coverage of the union vote." The "critical context" that Media Matters accused Tennessee newspapers of omitting was that "unionization enjoys majority support among Volkswagen workers" in the lead-up to the union election and that news reports "conspicuously" avoided the connections between "right-wing group's ties to the union opposition."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the Tennessee papers criticized by Media Matters was the Chattanooga Times Free Press (CTFP), which is the paper of record for the region in which the Volkswagen plant is located and the majority of the workers live. The CTFP has engaged in particularly astonishing sins of omission in its continued reporting on the UAW organizing drive at Volkswagen.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> For example, from August 2013 to November 2015, the CTFP printed 16 stories that contained quotes from prominent union buster John Raudabaugh. Of those stories, only five (see <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2014/jan/30/anti-union-group-seeks-probe-of-nlrb-in/130429/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>,<a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/feb/09/pro-anti-uaw-activity-gears-up-ahead-of-vw/131300/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2014/feb/19/clock-ticking-for-uaw-in-vw-vote/132144/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2014/feb/21/volkswagen-faces-uaw-suv-decisions/132359/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a> and <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/feb/22/uaw-appeals-vw-union-vote/132454/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>) contained any reference in the text of the article to Raudabaugh's being employed by the National to Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF),</span> while 11 of those 16 did not (see <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2013/aug/11/volkswagen-union-yea-or-nay-ex-nlrb-members-say-ua/115664/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2013/sep/12/the-fight-for-vwuaw-says-most-chattanooga-workers/118573/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2014/jan/31/uaw-election-at-vw-could-have-high-stakesunion/130534/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/feb/15/road-to-chattanooga-uaw-vote-has-been-bumpy/131855/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/feb/23/blip-on-the-screen-or-smudge-on-our-nameopinions/132494/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/apr/08/vw-eyes-uaw-recognition-chattanooga-plant-group-sa/136589/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>,<a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2014/jun/03/fight-over-unionizing-vw-plant-goes-on/142015/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/aug/27/vw-workers-seek-their-own-union/265618/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2015/sep/06/labor-groups-seek-breakthrough-vw/323390/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2015/nov/03/vw-against-maintenance-only-worker-vote/333774/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>, and <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/apr/22/uaw-pulls-appeal-talk-turns-to-vw-incentives/137938/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a>).</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an investigation of the NRTWLDF, <a href="http://progressive.org/news/2014/06/187725/who-behind-national-right-work-committee-and-its-anti-union-crusade" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Progressive described</a> the organization as "a national leader in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions" that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> raised over $25 million in 2012 alone, making the NRTWLDF "a powerful instrument of the corporate and ideological interests that want to keep wages low and silence the voice of organized labor in the political arena.</span>" The NRTWLDF's power was on full display in Chattanooga, as Raudabaugh provided free legal representation to anti-union Volkswagen workers in their fight against the unionization drive on <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/10-CA-114589" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">several</a> <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/10-CB-115311" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">occasions</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet, the local Chattanooga paper, in 11 out of 16 stories in which he was quoted, refused to make mention of Raudabaugh's connection to the NRTWLDF, where he has worked since 2012. In one particularly scandalous example, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published an article entitled <a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2013/aug/11/volkswagen-union-yea-or-nay-ex-nlrb-members-say-ua/115664/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">"VW union, yea or nea? Ex-NLRB member says UAW not needed in Chattanooga for works council" </a>that was entirely centered on Raudabaugh's theory that VW workers and the company could "reach a win-win outcome without having to pay a third party." As in the other 10 articles, the paper referred to Raudabaugh as a former National Labor Relations Board director and law professor at Ave Maria School of Law without any mention of his affiliation with the NRTWLDF. Yet, even the descriptions that they do provide are missing "critical context."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">According to his </span><a href="http://www.nrtw.org/en/nlrb-watch/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">profile</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> on the National Right to Work website,</span><b> Raudabaugh "hold's [sic] the Reed Larson Professorship of Labor Law at Ave Maria School of Law. </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">The Professorship was jointly established by the Foundation and Ave Maria to offer courses on workplace litigation and employee freedom." The NRTWLDF </span><a href="http://www.nrtw.org/en/press/2012/03/worker-rights-advocate-announces-add" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">press release</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> issued to announce his hiring states that Raudabaugh splits his time between providing legal assistance to anti-union workers and teaching at the "jointly established" professorship at Ave Marie law school, where<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.avemarialaw.edu/Content/Campuslife/November2014DeanNewsletter.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">law students work with Raudabaugh</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> on research and the writing of briefs on behalf of the NRTWLDF.</span></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Both the Ave Maria University and the the town of Ave Maria are owned by former Domino's pizza owner and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/14/business/taking-the-gospel-to-the-rich.html?pagewanted=all" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">extreme right-wing billionaire</a> Thomas Monaghan, who financed the construction as part of his dream to create an insulated conservative Catholic community.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> According to the </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113168144594694575" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Wall Street Journal,</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> Monaghan's medieval vision for this project, which has cost him hundreds of millions of dollars, is to create a town in which he can "control what goes on there" and residents "won't be able to buy a Playboy or Hustler magazine" and businesses are specifically forbidden from selling "the pill or the condoms or contraception." Thanks to a special law passed by the Florida state government at the behest of Monaghan, he and the Barron Collier development corporation not only own a majority of the town's property but are</span><a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/local/ave-maria---a-town-without-a-vote-now-and-forever-ep-398411826-343995352.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">the ultimate government authority in Ave Maria</a></span><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, and can remain so forever.</span> Empowered by the state government to a dictatorial reign, Monaghan's Catholic corporate dystopia has become a reality and Ave Maria has been described as a </span><a href="https://au.org/church-state/january-2015-church-state/featured/a-catholic-city" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">"miniature theocratic fiefdom"</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> and compared to</span><a href="http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/ave-maria-university-a-catholic-project-gone-wrong-6384870" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">"fascist regimes.</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">" It's not hard to see why the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation would feel right at home.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Unfortunately, the Chattanooga Times Free Press is not alone in functioning as an organ of anti-union propaganda. Both <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/06/us-autos-vw-uaw-idUSBRE9850VM20130906" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Reuters</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/19/us/ap-us-volkswagen-union.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(71, 109, 151); outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">the Associated Press</a> have provided space for Raudabaugh to make anti-union statements</span> while failing to make any mention of his being employed by the NRTWLDF. Parsing the corporate media's treatment of Raudabaugh, we can see a recurring theme: By avoiding "critical context," a prominent union buster, employed by a multimillion-dollar anti-union political operation in partnership with an extreme right-wing Catholic university founded by a conservative billionaire in a 21st century company town, magically becomes just another more-or-less neutral authority on labor relations, even after filing charges on behalf of anti-union Volkswagen workers against both the UAW and the company.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><font color="#222222" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;"><a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/12/voices-media-fails-to-reveal-anti-union-agenda-of-.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.southernstudies.org/2015/12/voices-media-fails-to-reveal-anti-union-agenda-of-.html</a></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Chris Brooks is a graduate student in the Labor Studies program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an organizer living in Chattanooga.)</font></em></p></article></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p>