Robert Alt, Buckeye’s president and chief executive officer, talks to Tyler Olson of FoxNews.com about Buckeye’s legal fight to immediately end laws that force public-sector employees to accept union representation. In the article, Olson writes, “In the wake of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that public-sector unions cannot force non-members to pay a fee for workplace representation, a new challenge to union power is taking shape.”
"Sometimes good public policy needs to be protected in the court of law. And through the work of The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, our lawyers are defending worker freedom, protecting people’s rights, and upholding the U.S. Constitution," writes Buckeye's Lisa Gates in a blog looking at the Institute's work to are prevent government overreach in people’s lives, defend free speech from those seeking to silence diverse opinions, and its support of allies in the fight for freedom and liberty.
Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute, issued a statement after the Ohio House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 7, which would remove barriers to employment for military spouses. In his statement, Hederman said, “Today’s unanimous vote by the Ohio House to pass Senate Bill 7 shows that policymakers are committed to helping our military families get back to work by removing needless occupational licensing barriers.”
In The Clermont Sun, The Buckeye Institute’s Greg Lawson looks at the experiences of Amelia and Newtonsville, Ohio as examples of why Ohio’s communities need to consider local government reform, writing, “Add Amelia and Newtonsville, Ohio, two tiny Clermont County villages, to the growing list of exhibits in the case against Ohio’s failing local government structure. The financial picture in both municipalities is so bleak, in fact, that residents of both communities will take to the polls on November 5 to decide whether to dissolve the municipal villages.”
Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D., an economist with The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center, commented on newly released employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “Ohio’s job market continues to show conflicting signs” which “continue to tell the same story—Ohio’s job growth is slowing.”
Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, testified Wednesday before the Ohio House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committee on the policies in Senate Bill 7 and the importance of removing barriers to employment for Ohio’s military families. The policies in Senate Bill 7 were developed from recommendations made by The Buckeye Institute in its 2016 policy brief Increasing Job Opportunities for Military Families.
Robert Alt, Buckeye’s president and chief executive officer, joined CATO’s Caleb O. Brown for a discussion on state‐level criminal justice reform and Alt’s white paper, Criminal Justice Reform: A Survey of 2018 State Laws, which he authored for the Federalist Society and offers an overview of recent state-level criminal law reforms.
The distance between a worker and that next, better-paying job just got shorter. Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted recently announced Ohio’s new TechCred program, which offers financial assistance to businesses that help their employees earn short-term degrees or job certificates, commonly referred to as micro-credentials. TechCred, along with the policies in House Bill 2—which would help individuals cover their costs of earning a micro-credential—will enable workers to quickly get the skills they need to be eligible for promotion and, as research shows, earn more money.
On Monday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Ricks v. Idaho Contractors Board calling on the United States Supreme Court to protect citizens’ civil liberties and to strike down laws that create unnecessary impediments to employment. Buckeye argues that the ever-growing maze of bureaucratic regulations and laws, created outside of the legislative process, violates civil liberties and, in Mr. Ricks’ case, cause undue economic harm.
On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute joined the Due Process Institute in filing an amicus brief in Guedes v. ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) calling on the United States Supreme Court to protect citizens from unelected government bureaucrats effectively redefining what constitutes a crime.
