Summary
Transcript
And along those lines, we have been second to none in pursuing justice, exposing the radical nature and trying to stop the critical race theory agenda that is antiAmerican Marxist and frankly, out to destroy the theory, the constitutional principle. That everyone, no matter their race, deserves equal protection of the law and that you can’t deny someone equal protection of the law based on race. And the left used to pretend that they believed in this, right? They were the civil rights left, right? And it was the awful conservatives who were all terribly racist, when in fact it turns out the truth is something different.
Conservatives and everyday Americans, conservative people who can call themselves conservative, or people who don’t even think about politics the way someone like me does, they inherently understand that the government should treat people equally, no matter their race. The left rejects that example. Judicial Watch files taxpayer lawsuit over racially discriminatory Minneapolis school contract teachers contract we announced that we filed a lawsuit on behalf of a taxpayer against the teachers over a teacher’s contract provision that provides discriminatory job protections to certain racial minorities.
We filed it against the superintendent of the schools out there, the school district generally, the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Board of Education for the state. And we say we allege under this taxpayer lawsuit, that it violates the Minnesota Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, which essentially is the same, legally speaking, as our Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which also provides equal protection protections under the law. The controversial contract was agreed to in March 2022 to end a 14 day teacher strike.
So this is something that was part that teacher. The teachers union, which evidently is far to the left because they promote this wanted. The Federation of Teachers in the State ratified the contract shortly after the agreement was reached and the Board of Education ratified it in May of this year. So here you have the union ratifying a contract that specifically endorses and allows for race discrimination against union members based on their race, and then you have it ratified by government.
And we sued to vindicate the rule of law here and stop it. This is the text of the lawsuit. In part. Among other things, the contract provides preferences, protection and privileges for teachers of certain races and ethnicities under a section entitled Article 15 protections for Educators of Color. There is no similar provision covering educators who are not of color. Under the contract, teachers of color are exempt from the school district’s seniority based layoffs and reassignments.
Which means when layoffs or reassignments occur, the next senior teacher who is not of color would be laid off or reassigned. In addition, the contract mandates that defendants reinstate teachers of color over more senior teachers who are not of color. Upon information and belief prior to the contract, teachers were laid off or reassigned in order of seniority, with the least senior teachers laid off or reassigned first without regard to race or ethnicity.
Similarly, teachers were reinstated in order of seniority, with the more senior teachers reinstated first without regard to race or ethnicity. Article Fifteen’s preferences. This is the discrimination article. Protections and privileges for certain public school teachers on the basis of race and ethnicity violates Minnesota’s equal protection guarantee, which states that no member of this state shall be disenfranchised or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers.
The Equal Protection guarantee is analyzed under the same principles and mandate as the Equal Protection clause of the US. Constitution. So what we’re doing is that we’re asking on behalf of our taxpayer client so Minnesota has this, I guess, legal principle that taxpayers can sue to stop illegal activity by the government, including race discrimination. That’s so blatant here, it’s just astonishing. So we’re entering a judgment that will declare that all the actions taken to implement the racial and ethnic preference provisions of the Article 15 of the contract be to be illegal.
We’re also asking that the court declare it illegal to use any taxpayer dollars to implement these provisions of the contract and that the defendants be prohibited from taking any actions to implement these racial and ethnic provisions. And as I say, it’s incredible that in this day and age we have to sue a school system over its blatant disregard for the rule of law and its blatant racial discrimination in employing teachers.
I mean, they think they should be able to engage in naked race discrimination, in removing teachers because of layoffs or hiring them back. What’s going on here? And of course, the Left was highlighting this contract as a national model. So this is why this lawsuit is also important. The courts can’t move soon enough to shut down this extreme leftist attack on the bedrock constitutional principle that no one can be denied equal treatment under law on account of race.
Judicial Watch has become America’s number one civil rights organization in terms of vindicating and protecting the rule of law that prohibits racial discrimination. And who are the worst offenders, who are the worst threats to the rule of law protecting you and yours from race discrimination? Everyone from race discrimination. The Left. We had a case in Asheville, North Carolina. The city there had set up a school program or school scholarship program funded with tax dollars that only allowed minorities to apply outrageously racially discriminatory.
We sued the city said, okay, you’re right. We’re turning it off. California, you had mandates based on race, based on sexual identity, ethnicity, quota, mandates based on gender for corporate boards of directors. We sued two lawsuits. We won both completely discriminatory requirements. I mean, the left is an engaged in a full national assault on the rule of law as it relates to equal protection protections under our constitution and the relevant state versions of those protections.
This is dangerous. They want to divide the country by race and specifically provide certain benefits to certain members, certain races, and no benefits to others or punish other races. It’s crazy, and I say crazy. It’s malicious because they know what they’re doing. In the case of Asian Americans who in some circumstances are treated as minorities and other circumstances are treated as targets by the left to be discriminated against in school admissions, whether they be in Harvard or as I was.
Talking about a few weeks ago. A big high school. Leading high school. The leading high school in the country, just outside of Washington, DC. The left looked at the makeup of the high school, said there were too many asians in it, and they changed the rules to ensure they get discriminated against the radical left. And of course, this is all critical race theory, by the way, because they think the current nondiscrimination system that’s in place under the constitution, that’s in place under the civil rights act, and it’s the various similar civil rights laws, they’re all a tool of white supremacy to oppress minorities.
They don’t believe in laws against racial discrimination, and they want to blow it up and make government the divider of races. It’s revolutionary. It’s marxist. It’s anti american, and judicial watch is doing its darnest to stop it. And that’s why we’ve got this important lawsuit in Minnesota on behalf of taxpayers to vindicate the rule of law, because if this contract gets true and is allowed to proceed and is upheld, we’re going to have all sorts of contracts throughout the country that provide special favors to people based on race.
What a terrible thing that would be for the country and the rule of law in the american way. .