Category: Litigation

Posted inEconomic Security, Litigation, Policy Topics

Kittitas County Superior Court judge turns back constitutional challenge to I‑1433

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A Supe­ri­or Court judge in Kit­ti­tas Coun­ty has turned back a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge to I‑1433 filed by sev­er­al trade asso­ci­a­tions, leav­ing new require­ments for paid leave and increas­es to the state’s min­i­mum wage in place. “[T]his Court is of the opin­ion that the Plain­tiffs have failed to estab­lish that I‑1433 has vio­lat­ed the Wash­ing­ton State Constitution […]

Posted inLitigation, Media & Culture, Open Government, Policy Topics

These were the headlines following the Friday filing of new litigation against Tim Eyman

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

On Fri­day, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son announced that the State of Wash­ing­ton is suing Tim Eyman, William Agazarm, and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions for $2.1 mil­lion and also pur­su­ing injunc­tive relief bar­ring Eyman from con­tin­u­ing to manip­u­late mon­ey raised from gullible right wing donors. Eyman is accused of seri­ous vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton State’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law dating […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Litigation, Open Government, Policy Topics

State of Washington sues Tim Eyman over illegal kickbacks, misuse of campaign funds

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Bring­ing to an end a mul­ti­year inves­ti­ga­tion into Tim Eyman’s ille­gal cam­paign finance prac­tices, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son announced today that the State of Wash­ing­ton has filed a law­suit in Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court seek­ing $2.1 mil­lion in penal­ties against him, his asso­ciate William Agazarm of Cit­i­zen Solu­tions, and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions itself, as well as […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Litigation, Policy Topics

Trump loses again: 9th Circuit refuses to reinstate discriminatory travel ban

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Don­ald Trump’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry trav­el ban will remain unen­force­able for the time being, the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals ruled today. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion, a three judge pan­el ruled that Trump’s regime “has not shown a like­li­hood of suc­cess on the mer­its of its appeal, nor has it shown that fail­ure to enter a […]

Posted inBreaking News, Litigation, Policy Topics

State of Washington wins restraining order against Trump regime’s immigration ban

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Hand­ing Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son a pre­lim­i­nary vic­to­ry in his efforts to stop neo­fas­cist Don­ald Trump from stomp­ing all over the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion and fed­er­al law, U.S. Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Judge James L. Robart today grant­ed the State of Wash­ing­ton’s request for a tem­po­rary restrain­ing order block­ing imple­men­ta­tion of key pro­vi­sions of Trump’s […]

Posted inEducation, Litigation, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman continues attack on state Supreme Court, misquotes Orwell’s “Animal Farm”

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

With no ini­tia­tive on the bal­lot to sell this year, scan­­dal-plagued ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman has turned his atten­tion to launch­ing attacks on indi­vid­u­als and insti­tu­tions he does­n’t like, name­ly the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court, Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates for office at all lev­els, and Sound Tran­sit. This after­noon, Eyman sent out yet anoth­er mis­sive exco­ri­at­ing the […]

Posted inLitigation, Open Government, Policy Topics

It’s official: Attorney General Ferguson has a second case against Tim Eyman to prosecute

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A com­plaint alleg­ing that Tim Eyman failed to fol­low Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law back in April when he launched an ad cam­paign exco­ri­at­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers for not doing his bid­ding has been returned to Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s office for fur­ther action by a unan­i­mous Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion. In an ear­ly after­noon tele­con­fer­ence, Com­mis­sion­ers Anne […]

Posted inLitigation

Tim Eyman’s pals Eddie Agazarm and Roy Ruffino ordered to cooperate with AG’s probe

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

The men Tim Eyman relies on to orga­nize paid sig­na­ture dri­ves to force pub­lic votes on his schemes to wreck gov­ern­ment have been ordered by a Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court judge to coop­er­ate with Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s inves­ti­ga­tion into their law­break­ing, just forty-eight hours after a Sno­homish Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court judge ordered Eyman himself […]

Posted inLitigation

VICTORY! Tim Eyman ordered to cooperate with AG investigation, pay enforcement costs

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Hope­ful­ly putting an end to months of stonewalling by Tim Eyman, Sno­homish Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Ellen Fair today ordered the ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer to coop­er­ate with Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s inves­ti­ga­tion into his alleged vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law, which began last fall with a refer­ral of a com­plaint from the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Commission. […]

Posted inElections, Litigation

Supreme Court’s ruling against I‑1366 sets important precedent against hostage-taking

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Last Thurs­day, when the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court issued its unan­i­mous ver­dict in Lee v. State, it did­n’t mere­ly bury Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 in Wash­ing­ton’s polit­i­cal grave­yard… it also set a wel­come and impor­tant prece­dent against the pol­i­tics of hostage-tak­ing. [Don’t know who Tim Eyman is? Read this. Don’t know what I‑1366 is? Go here.] This aspect of the rul­ing has yet […]

Posted inElections, Litigation

HUGE VICTORY: Unified State Supreme Court rules Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 is unconstitutional!

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, in anoth­er land­mark deci­sion, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly affirmed King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge William Down­ing’s rul­ing strik­ing down Tim Eyman’s dra­con­ian Ini­tia­tive 1366 as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in its entire­ty — rel­e­gat­ing the mean-spir­it­ed, Ted Cruz-inspired hostage-tak­ing scheme to Wash­ing­ton’s polit­i­cal grave­yard for­ev­er. This is a huge vic­to­ry. As I said in our […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Litigation, Policy Topics

Labor movement finally catches a break as Supreme Court deadlocks in Friedrichs case

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

A right wing attempt to severe­ly weak­en pub­lic sec­tor unions end­ed in fail­ure today when the Supreme Court announced in a one-sen­­tence rul­ing that it would not over­turn its 1977 deci­sion allow­ing such unions to charge non-mem­bers agency fees to cov­er the cost of rep­re­sent­ing them in col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing nego­ti­a­tions. Pre­sum­ably, the remain­ing mem­bers of […]

Posted inElections, Litigation, Live Coverage

LIVE from Olympia: Washington’s Supreme Court hears oral argument in Lee v. State

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Good morn­ing from Olympia! NPI Trea­sur­er Essie Hicks and I are here at the Tem­ple of Jus­tice, the meet­ing place of the Supreme Court, to lis­ten to oral argu­ment in Lee v. State, the legal chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s I‑1366. Attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing each of the par­ties in the case will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to summarize […]

Posted inElections, Litigation

Washington State Supreme Court to hear oral argument in Lee v. State tomorrow morning

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Tomor­row morn­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court is sched­uled to hear oral argu­ment in Lee v. State, the post-elec­­tion legal chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s I‑1366, which nar­row­ly passed last Novem­ber amidst record low vot­er turnout. I‑1366 was an attempt by Eyman to coerce the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture into over­turn­ing a pre­vi­ous Supreme Court deci­sion, League […]