Written by Vincent Hale
An activist judge in Alameda County made a questionable decision recently that overturns millions of votes of Californians.
Judge Frank Roesch favored a lawsuit backed by unions that were targeting proposition 22. Proposition 22 is a ballot measure used to define app-based transportation and delivery drivers as independent contractors that passed with 58% of the vote in 2020. The proposition was meant to be the antithesis of Assembly Bill 5 which attempted to make app-based drivers unionize.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) backed this lawsuit against prop. 22. The SEIU is one of the main unions that is trying to organize workers. Once prop. 22 is out of the way, it will be easier for them to turn these workers, now defined as employees, into members of their union.
This decision is just the latest of Judge Frank Roesch’s questionable rulings. Judge Roesch has a lengthy record of making poor decisions that get turned over by higher courts.
In 2009, Judge Roesch attempted to block the city of Oakland from directing public safety funds toward hiring seriously needed police officers, although this effort was unsuccessful. A State Appeals Court also found that he tried to restrict a man’s constitutionally protected speech in 2012.
Last year, Judge Roesch was reprimanded unanimously by the state judicial commission due to his extreme biases in two cases that he had managed.
Roesch had denied a party their fundamental right to due process in his efforts for a desired judicial outcome in the first case. In the second case, he tried to reject a man’s ownership of a property that he had legally purchased.
If this trend continues following his recent decision, perhaps a higher court will overturn his biased decision and support the millions of Californians who voted yes on prop. 22.
Photo Cred: James BeBop
