Labor

In a dispute between a Sacramento grocery store and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, California's Third District Court of Appeal invalidated a 1975 law which protects the rights of unions to picket on property owned by the business that is the target of the protest. The law allows a judge to bar labor picketing on private and public property only to prevent illegal action that would cause significant property damage that law enforcement officers could not avert.  

The owners of a Foods Co. store in Sacramento had asked the court to strike down the law because union protestors were distributing leaflets five feet from the entrance to the store. Labor organizers began picketing the store when it opened in July 2007.

A  three-judge panel of the appellate court unanimously agreed that the law is unconstitutional because it singles out speech by labor unions for protection.

In a related case, the United States Supreme Court in 1980 upheld an earlier California Supreme Court ruling in Pruneyard v. Robins that owners of shopping malls cannot prohibit political activists from passing out literature and otherwise exercising their free speech rights within the shopping center.

In the early 20th century, cities throughout California passed laws restricting speech on public streets and in public parks as a means of preventing labor union leaders from organizing workers.

Richard Chavez, a leader of the United Farm Workers union and the younger brother of Cesar Chavez, died on July 27, 2011 at the age of 81. He passed away in a Bakersfield hospital after complications from surgery.

Richard Chavez was born in November 1929 on his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. He was a migrant farm worker as a child. But in 1949, Richard his his older brother Cesar left farm labor and worked for a year in lumber mills near Crescent City, California.

In 1950, Richard moved to San Jose and in 1951 entered a carpenters' union apprentice program. He worked on residential and commercial construction projects in San Jose and Delano, where he helped to form and became President of the local chapter of the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights organization. 

In the early 1960s, he helped his brother Cesar organize the United Farm Workers. His varied responsibilities included leading the union's successful boycotts during the 1960s and early 1970s in New York and Detroit of California grapes and other produce picked by non-union labor.

He also oversaw construction and helped to build the union hall and office, health clinic, and coop gas station at "Forty Acres," the United Farm Workers' headquarters outside of Delano.

Chavez retired from the union in 1983 but stayed active in the labor movement. He also served as a board member of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the latter named for another founder and longtime leader of the United Farm Workers.

On January 19, the United States Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that the federal government can inquire about the personal finances, mental and emotional stability, and other personal matters of government contractors.

The high court overturned a 2008 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that such inquiries had little connection to security or other government concerns.

The lawsuit was brought by 28 scientists and engineers working for the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Laboratory who objected to the invasive government background checks. The employees, most of whom have worked for decades for the California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA, had passed background checks when they were first hired. However, a 2004 Bush administration order compelled them to undergo a second background check in order to meet increased security standards.

Writing for six of the justices, Justice Samuel Alito ruled that such inquiries into the private lives government employees and contractors were "reasonable investigations."

However, he also said that he assumed a federal right to informational privacy exists, but that the background checks in question did not violate that right.

This drew a critical concurring opinion from Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, who lambasted the rest of the court for accepting a federal right to privacy. 

Since 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a federal right to privacy. In 1972, voters amended the California Constitution to add an explicit right to privacy.

None of the workers who brought the lawsuit were assigned to top-secret projects, but they nevertheless faced investigations, including probes into their medical and financial records, emotional and psychological condition, and other personal matters.

Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because as Solicitor General she was involved in the case.

On March 8, the high court agreed to hear the case of 28 scientists and engineers working for the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Labratory who objected to invasive government background checks. The employees, most of whom have worked for decades for the California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA, had passed background checks when they were first hired. However, a 2004 Bush administration order compelled them to undergo a second background check in order to meet increased security standards.

None of the workers were assigned to top-secret projects, but they nevertheless faced investigations, including probes into their medical and finanical records, emotional and psychological condition, and other personal matters.

When they refused to agree to the checks, they faced dismisal. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the employees from being fired. 

In 1947, President Harry Truman authorized investigations into the loyalty of every federal employee and applicant for federal employment. Individuals were spied on because they had years earlier expressed sympathy for militant labor leaders. Others were scrutinized because their relatives or neighbors were allegedly sympathetic to communism.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower issued an executive order designating "sexual perversion" (i.e. homosexuality) a basis for denying federal employment, and for firing employees under the government security program that had initially targeted "subversives." In 1960, he issued an executive order establishing the Industrial Security Program to protect the government from security threats posed by private sector employees working on government contracts; this order became the basis for barring gay people from the private sector defense industry.