Chicago teachers ask for First Amendment rights following Chicago Board of Education's banning of union election activities, literature distributions... Chicago Board of Education to present witnesses at hearing on March 25 at 1:00
“Unbelievable!” Deborah Lynch exclaimed shortly before the hearing in the case of "Lynch et al v Huberman & Board of Education of the City of Chicago (10C1783). Lynch and a group of union activists, including members of her PACT caucus, were outside the 12th floor courtroom of U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Wednesday afternoon, March 24, 2010. The hearing was scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. Lynch, the lead plaintiff in a major First Amendment case involving the rights of teachers, had just received the Chicago Board of Education's response to her motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The request for the TRO had been filed against the Chicago Board of Education two days earlier (by Lynch and her caucus, PACT, Pro Active Chicago Teachers and school employees) to overturn a March 12, 2010, order from the public school system's Chief Executive Officer, Ron Huberman.
Former Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch (above, center) is currently a teacher at Gage Park High School who is again running for the post of CTU President (a post she held from 2001 to 2004). Above, Lynch poses in front of the Bill of Rights at the federal courthouse in Chicago following the March 24, 2010, hearing on the request by Lynch and others for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Chicago Board of Education for banning union election activities in Chicago's public schools. With Lynch during the hearing were Daniel VanOver (Taft High School), Michael Brunson (displaced teacher), Mary Ellen Sanchez, and Maureen Callaghan (Curie High School clerk). Michael Brunson, a candidate on the CORE slate in the May 21, 2010 election, joined the PACT people in court and testified on behalf of PACT's lawsuit. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Huberman's March 12 order banned all union election activities in the schools for Lynch and others who are challenging the incumbent union officers, while allowing a loophole that permits the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Marilyn Stewart, to continue meeting with teachers in the schools and distributing literature to the union's 27,000 members in the city's schools as "official union business".
Lynch's case charged that the Huberman order violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, taking away the rights of speech, assembly and petition from those union members who want to challenge the present union leadership.
CPS lawyers had just provided the judge — and Lynch's attorneys — with a 57-page response to Lynch's Motion for A Temporary Restraining Order. Why did Ron Huberman issue such a sweeping order violating teachers' First Amendment rights? According to Huberman's lawyers, one of the main reasons was that the CTU's own leaders, who are supposed to protect the rights of union teachers, had repeatedly asked Huberman (and his predecessor, Arne Duncan) to do so.
As evidence on behalf of the school board, Board lawyers, represented in court by Mark Trent, provided the judge with copies of dozens of communications to CPS by the Chicago Teachers Union's officers beginning nearly four years ago. In the materials, including e-mails, officials of the union were demanding that CPS discipline Lynch, PACT and others who campaign against the incumbent union officials. As she waited for the hearing to begin, Lynch was reading, in black and white, what many union activists had long suspected, and sometimes charged. The boss had been cooperating with the union against the union's members.
As far back as 2007, when Lynch and PACT sent emails and flyers in opposition to the new contract, then CTU vice-president Ted Dallas e-mailed Rachel Resnick of CPS. “We are again calling on the Board to initiate the appropriate disciplinary action which will deter this type of behavior in the future," Dallas wrote in one e-mail. "Please get back to me ASAP and let me know what steps you will be taking.”
A fuller story about the content of the Board Memorandum appears below in this day's Substance news reports. See www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1262§ion=Article
The CPS Motion to the court on March 24 contained copies of emails from various CTU officers and officials over a period of more than three years. All of them are seeking Board discipline for union members, particularly Lynch, who opposed them and their policies. The school board has asked the judge to throw out Lynch's complaint, arguing that the March 12 Huberman order does not violate the First Amendment.
One of the officials of the Chicago Public Schools expected to be called to testify on behalf of the Board of Education on March 25 in the PACT First Amendment lawsuit is Rachel Resnick (above, at microphone, during the October 2009 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education). Resnick is Chief Labor Relations Office of CPS and was the recipient of several of the e-mails included in the Board's response to the lawsuit filed by Deborah Lynch. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. “On numerous occasions during the fall of 2009, the Board again received numerous complaints from CTU officials regarding improper campaign activities by PACT and asking that controls be put in place by the Board,” the Board stated in its Memorandum.
The Board claims that the requests from the union leadership led to the actions taken on March 12, with Ron Huberman’s issued his directive that no campaigning of any kind can take place in or around schools. Earlier, in November 2009, Huberman had issued a preliminary directive barring the union's dissident groups from such activities, but Lynch's attorneys had challenged the action and thought that Huberman and the Board's lawyers had reconsidered the action. On March 12, they were surprised when Huberman issued the most sweeping ban in CPS history less than two weeks before petitions were due for those seeking to challenge Marilyn Stewart and her "United Progressive Caucus" (UPC) in the CTU election, which is scheduled for May 21.
The basis of the suit brought by PACT alleges that Huberman's edict violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution by restricting the rights of teachers and other school workers who are involved in union activities and who wish to criticize the leaders of their own union and run for office against those leaders.
The hearing was scheduled at 1:00 p.m. in the courtroom of Judge Amy St. Eve on the 12th floor of the Dirksen Federal Building at 219 S. Dearborn St in Chicago.
LENGTHY HEARING
When the March 24 hearing began shortly after 1:00 p.m., Judge St. Eve made one last attempt to get the two sides to reconcile, as is required. She told the attorneys that she had just received the Board's Memorandum was wanted to take time to read it. She asked Jose Behar (representing PACT) and Mark Trent (representing CPS) if they had tried to resolve this issue. Behar stated that they had been in discussions since November 2009, but recent attempts have been ignored by the Board. The judge asked the two attorneys to make one last attempt to resolve the matter before she convened the court on the case. When everyone returned, the attorneys reported that they had been unable to reach a resolution of the issue, and the judge told everyone that the case would proceed.
The judge asked if there would be witnesses to provide testimony in addition to the affidavits that PACT had provided and was continuing to provide. PACT attorney Behar provided a list of witnesses who were in court and ready to testify.
Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Ron Huberman (above, during the March 24, 2010 Chicago Board of Education meeting) was at the Board of Education meeting while the First Amendment lawsuit against his March 12 edict was being argued two blocks away in federal court. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. Mark Trent, the Board's attorney, said that there was such short notice that the Board had not bought its witnesses. He said that the Board was having the monthly meeting, so he didn’t have witnesses available. The judge then said that she would hear PACT witnesses on March 24 and Board witnesses the next day. A request for a TRO has priority in court, because it can only be granted if the plaintiffs are suffering harm at the time that can't be alleviated in any other way.
Judge St. Eve asked both counsels to try to settle this outside of the courtroom and recessed for several minutes while lawyers met. When they returned to court without an agreement, she directed them into her chambers for further discussion. They returned without a resolution. So the hearing began.
Jose Behar called a number of witnesses, including one who was in court from another caucus challenging the current leadership of the CTU.
PACT's witnesses included Deborah Lynch, Mary Ellen Sanchez, Michael Brunson, Russell Ehler, Cindy Heywood, and this reporter. All testified about various things related to the First Amendment case before the court. The majority of the witnesses (including, full disclosure) were members of PACT. One, Michael Brunson, is running for Chicago Teachers Union Recording Secretary on the slate of the CORE caucus (Caucus Or Rank and File Educators). Also in court were two leaders of the School Employee Alliance (SEA) caucus, Ted Hajiharis and Pam Touras. Representatives of the caucuses opposing Marilyn Stewart have told Substance they support the First Amendment case brought by PACT.
Each of the witnesses testified to witnessing numerous meetings of non-CPS groups at their schools before, after and sometimes during school. These meetings included candidates forums for local school councils and meetings of groups as diverse at sororities and those seeking to purchase or sell annuities. Clearly, the public schools of Chicago were locations where meetings were held regularly on a variety of topics.
MAILBOXES ALSO IN QUESTION
The second major question raised by Huberman's March 12 edict was the use of school mailboxes. Huberman has ordered principals not to allow the union's opposition groups to place election materials in the mailboxes of union members. The witnesses also told of being inundated with materials in their mailboxes as well as signage on school walls from many of the same organizations including LSC, Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF), financial companies, colleges, vendors, social and community organizations, and others — none of which were officially from CPS.
Mary Ellen Sanchez, a former LSC member, explained that LSC elections and campaigns take place in the schools. Campaign materials for election of trustees of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund also take place in the schools. CPS attorney Trent asked Sanchez if she knew of any meeting that had been canceled and why she stated that meeting had been canceled because members fear discipline from CPS. Deborah Lynch stated that since Huberman's March 12 order, she had held back on holding school meetings. She said that she did not want to put any member in danger of repercussions. When asked if she was afraid of CPS, she pointed to the CPS table and said, “Yes.”
THE LEGAL ARGUMENTS
After the witnesses, the attorneys argued their case before the judge, who questioned each of them closely. Jose Behar, representing Deborah Lynch and PACT, argued that past practice and law would deem the schools as public forums under First Amendment law.
The Board of Education's lawyer, Mark Trent, insisted that the schools were private for these purporses. Behar argued that the policy in question was discriminatory and has caused irreparable harm. Trent denied this, but the Judge asked if the policy was content based and Trent responded, “It could be.”
Both sides cited various case law.
The hearing was recessed until Thursday, March 25, 2010, at 1:00 p.m. At that time, Trent told the judge he will present CPS witnesses.
At press time, Substance does not know whether CPS will bring its Chief Executive Officer, Ron Huberman, to testify. A CPS official who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to discuss the matter said that CPS had not decided whether Huberman would appear in court. As usual, CPS Chief Communications Officer Monique Bond did not return Substance phone messages. Bond's treatment of the press is not limited to Substance.
The PACT attorneys said they expect a ruling on the request for a Temporary Restraining Order to be made either on March 25 or March 26. A TRO is a very special writ, only issued in Constitutional Law cases when it is the only way to prevent immediate damage to the rights of individuals, according to the attorneys. The ongoing immediate damage claimed by the PACT case is that with each passing day, candidates for CTU office, other than Marilyn Stewart, are being deprived of their right to meet with teachers and other union members to promote their candidacies in the schools, as has been the case within the CTU and at CPS for more than 50 years, according to those familiar with union and Board practice.
Following any ruling on the request for the writ, Judge St. Eve will give a written decision on how the issues brought before her relate to Constitutional Law.
By: bob
Todays events
The Phoenix
Out of the shambles of today’s events we can at least come away with one
Bright spot. This will kill any chance the UPC has to win in May. Now we can begin to rise
like that mythical bird
Tomorrow i will post the vote and how much
PAC money our union gave those loutes in Springfield