AB 340 Brings Pension Reform to California Public Employees

The Governor signed Assembly Bill 340 (“AB 340”) on September 12, 2012, and the new law will bring changes to California’s public retirement systems.  AB 340, formerly known as the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013, applies to public retirement systems, with the exception of the University of California system and charter cities and counties.  The major changes mandated by AB 1340 are set out below.  However, this bill is highly technical and contains multiple ambiguities. 

Read our Legal Alert for a general update.  Specific questions regarding the impact of the new legislation should be addressed on a case by case basis.

Meghan Covert Russell

School District Did Not Violate Teacher’s Constitutional Rights When It Ordered Religious Banners Removed From His Classroom

In Johnson v. Poway Unified School District (658 F.3d 954, C.A.9 (Cal.), September 13, 2011)), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit considered whether a California school district violated a teacher’s First Amendment rights by ordering him to remove banners from his classroom that contained references to “God” and the “Creator.”  The Ninth Circuit concluded the school district did not violate the teacher’s rights when it ordered him “not to use his public position as a pulpit from which to preach his own view on the role of God in our Nation’s history to captive students in his mathematics classroom.”

For more coverage, read our Legal Alert.

Meghan Covert Russell