In our ongoing fight on behalf of the victims of state officials and private vendors automate system for (falsely) charging fraud against unemployed insurance claimants, we obtained a great ruling from the federal appeals court in Cincinnati. “The unanimous decision from the three-member Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel came with a strong rebuke for the state employees who attempted to blame the faulty program for the issue even though they were the ones “implementing, overseeing and continuing” the program.” Full story.
Stopping Exploitation of Students by For-Profit Schools
A judge has cleared the way for possibly thousands of people to be paid for work performed while they were students at a [for profit vocational schools] ….Students [were required to] clean floors, restocked products and washed towels … tasks that weren’t directly related to their education at the Douglas J Aveda Institute, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said Monday. She said those students can be considered employees under federal law. The amount of money they might receive hasn’t been determined. “They’re entitled to be compensated,” John Philo, an attorney for former students, said Wednesday. “The next step will be class certification and showing this is happening through all the locations. It could be as high as 5,000 to 6,000 students.” Full story
A win in the Emergency Manager Lawsuit!
We received news today that the Judge Steeh denied the State of Michigan's most recent attempt to dismiss our federal court lawsuit challenging Michigan's discriminatory and undemocratic Emergency Manager law! The court's opinion can be read here.
People's Platform Summit
The Sugar Law Center's John Philo will be one of the presenters on community benefits this Saturday's People's Platform Summit at SEIU Local 1. Come out as support a great organization that is working for real change to place residents over profits in Detroit.
Congrats to our Community Outreach & Development Director Rashida Tlaib!
Sugar Law Center is so inspired by and proud of our co-worker Rashida Tlaib's election victory in the August primary to represent the people of Michigan from the 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives!
Court Declares that EPA Failed To Protect Civil Rights
In Flint, Michigan, the St. Francis Prayer Center filed what was the oldest pending civil rights complaint languishing at EPA. In 1992 the prayer center alleged that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) discriminated by, among other things, treating African Americans who sought to testify during the permitting process differently from whites. In 2017, 25 years after the prayer center filed the complaint but one week after EPA filed papers to dismiss the litigation, EPA issued its second-ever finding of discrimination in response to the prayer center complaint. Yet EPA also closed the case without requiring any remedy, according to records. …Earthjustice and the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School represent CAlifornians for Renewable Energy, the Ashurst Bar/Smith Community Organization, Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, Sierra Club, and Michael Boyd in their action against EPA. see full story at Yale Law School News