Tag Archives: injunction

Judge Blocks Haslam’s Move to Lay Off 200 State Employees

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A Nashville judge issued a restraining order Monday against Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to lay off more than 200 state workers this month, acting on a lawsuit filed by state employees.
From Andy Sher’s report:
The suit charges top state officials violated provisions in law surrounding a 60-day notice for affected employees.
Circuit Court Judge Amanda McClendon granted employees’ request for a restraining order and has scheduled a hearing for this coming Monday in the case, said attorney Larry Woods, who is representing the Tennessee State Employees Association and a group of individual state workers, including several from Hamilton County.
TSEA Executive Director Robert O’Connell said the suit was filed with “great reluctance” after last-minute meetings with state officials, including Human Resources Commissioner Rebecca Hunter, failed to produce results.
Contacted Monday night, Haslam Communications Director Alexia Poe said by email “it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment on potential/pending litigation.”
While the state provided the notices throughout April, officials did not comply with a section that says soon-to-be-fired employees be given “career counseling, job testing, and placement efforts,” the suit says.
That’s because the state’s Department of Human Resources on May 9 took down the agency’s Neogov online service that employees must use to find job openings and apply for them, according to state employees.
Hiring is now frozen and the site doesn’t come back up until June 19 — a day after 72 state Labor and Workforce Development workers are slated to lose their jobs following notices provided April 19.
Another 126 employees in the Department of General Services were given notice on April 25 that they were losing their jobs on June 28. The state is outsourcing management and maintenance of state office buildings to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate services firm.
Woods said the suit seeks to enjoin the Haslam administration from dismissing or terminating any state employees in the current reduction-in-force actions “unless they receive 60 days of career counseling, job testing and placement” services.
The suit says Haslam, Hunter, who is a former Hamilton County personnel director, and other state officials are running afoul of protections lawmakers inserted in Haslam’s own 2012 civil service overhaul.
The state employees’ group initially opposed the legislation, saying it would wreck protections and open the way to political patronage. But TSEA’s O’Connell said the group accepted the bill after lawmakers inserted protections including the 60-day notice and the chance to move elsewhere within state government.
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Note: News release from TSEA is below.

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Judge Won’t Block Mark Clayton’s Nomination

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By Lucas Johnson, Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge on Thursday refused to void the Tennessee Democratic primary for U.S. Senate won by an anti-gay candidate the party has disavowed.
District Judge Kevin Sharp cited among the reasons for his refusal that the plaintiff, Larry Crim, was lacking certain filings and that there were errors in others. For instance, the Tennessee Division of Elections was named as a defendant instead of an individual, which should have been the election coordinator.
Sharp told Crim’s attorney, Michael Rowan, that once he got the proper items — such as a memorandum, affidavit and declarations — that he was welcome to file again.
“Before you can do anything, you have to follow the rules,” Sharp said.
Rowan, who acknowledged acting hastily in seeking an emergency ruling, told reporters after the hearing that he would talk to his client about how to proceed.
Crim sued the state Division of Elections and the Tennessee Democratic Party in trying to keep the winner of the Aug. 2 primary, Mark Clayton, off the November ballot.

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Judge Says Parts of Voter ID Law ‘Make No Sense’… But It Stands

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The public library’s new photo cards won’t qualify as voter IDs in Thursday’s elections, and the long-term outlook for the voter-photo initiative of Mayor A C Wharton appears in serious jeopardy after a two-hour hearing in a Nashville federal court, reports Richard Locker.
U.S. Dist. Judge Aleta Trauger denied the City of Memphis’ request for an injunction ordering election officials to accept the photo cards as identification under Tennessee’s law requiring most voters to present photo IDs at polling precincts before they can cast ballots.
Although the judge said “there are parts of this act (the state law) that make no sense to the court and it does appear there will be unfair impacts, particular on the elderly,” she said the plaintiffs in the case — the City of Memphis and a Memphis voter — “are not likely to succeed on the merits” in their efforts to allow the library-issued cards to qualify.
One of the provisions of the voter-photo statute passed by the new Republican majority in the Tennessee legislature last year that Trauger and even attorneys for the state agreed “makes no sense” allows long-expired hunting licenses or other photo ID issued by any other state to qualify for Tennessee voting — but not photo IDs issued by Tennessee cities or counties.
“I certainly do hope the legislature revisits this act because to the court, it is nonsensical that someone who holds an expired hunting license from another state and someone who has a photo ID from the library” are treated differently when it comes to voting, Trauger said.
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Note: Statements on the judge’s decision below.

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Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction in Planned Parenthood Suit

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News release from Planned Parenthood:
MEMPHIS, TN – Planned Parenthood Middle and East Tennessee applauds United States District Judge William Haynes’s ruling today to grant a preliminary injunction to halt the Tennessee Department of Health’s decision to rescind HIV and syphilis testing and prevention grants awarded to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Tennessee.
“This ruling is a victory for the thousands of women, men and teens of Tennessee who rely on Planned Parenthood for HIV and STD testing and prevention counseling. Planned Parenthood has provided these services in our communities for more than 10 years and is eminently qualified to continue providing them,” said Jeff Teague, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Middle and East Tennessee.
In the suit against the state, Planned Parenthood argues they were excluded from the HIV and syphilis elimination programs for providing comprehensive women’s health care–a violation of federal law and the constitutional rights of Planned Parenthood.
In 2011, 17,698 women, men and teens relied on Planned Parenthood’s nonprofit health centers in communities throughout Tennessee for a wide range of quality, affordable health care services including annual exams, birth control counseling and care, reproductive cancer screenings, STD prevention and treatment and abortion care. One in five American women has relied on Planned Parenthood at some point in her life. Planned Parenthood has been operating in Tennessee for more than 75 years.
“This decision will allow us to continue our life saving work, providing high quality educational programming with accurate health information and services,” said Lyndsey Godwin, PPMET’s Manager of Education and Training. “HIV prevention education and counseling empowers people and saves lives.”
Over the past five years, the rate of new HIV infections among 15-to-24-year-olds in Tennessee has more than doubled. Tennessee’s syphilis infection rate is the fifth highest in the nation, with 60 percent of all new syphilis cases in the state occurring in Shelby County.
“With such dismal health statistics, now is not the time to cut prevention programs that are proven to work,” Teague continued.

ACLU Plans to Oppose Plaza Curfew in Court

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The Tennessee chapter of the ACLU will ask the courts to bar enforcement of a newly imposed curfew on Legislative Plaza, reports Chas Sisk. A request for an injunction could be filed as soon as Monday.
While the legal teams maneuvered, protesters returned to Legislative Plaza to defy the state’s new curfew, which has led to nearly 50 arrests over two nights and countless man-hours for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Both nights, a magistrate refused to approve troopers’ warrants and ordered the protesters released. (Note: There were no arrests in the early morning hours Sunday, a contrast to the arrests in the early morning hours of Friday and Saturday.)
…. The main differences were the tuxedoed guests and the strains of symphony music spilling out of the War Memorial Auditorium (on Saturday night). The Tennessee Performing Arts Center was hosting a gala fundraiser at one end of the plaza while 50 to 75 Occupy Nashville protesters huddled on the other.
The arrests began after Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration announced Thursday that it had imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on Legislative Plaza for safety and sanitation reasons. State officials also announced all groups would have to purchase liability insurance and take out a $65 permit for each day they want to assemble on the plaza, making official what had been an informal policy.
Implementing the new rules amid an ongoing protest may have violated the group’s rights of speech, assembly and petition under the First Amendment, some observers say.
“This is sort of a basic, core right to protest,” said Hedy Weinberg, state director for the ACLU. “The state cannot change the rules in the middle of the game, which is what’s happening, and the state knows that they cannot change the policy and selectively apply it.”
Haslam has said protesters were given advance notice of the curfew and chose not to clear the plaza.