AFT Joins Lawsuit to Interfere With Illegal CDL Crackdown

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By Ward Clark

To anyone with a modicum of good sense, it seems unbelievable that anyone would defend the lunatic practice of issuing commercial drivers' licenses (CDLs) to people who can neither read nor speak English, and to turn them loose on the nation's highways at the wheel of huge 18-wheel tractor-trailer rigs. But that is what is happening, wherein a lawsuit is challenging the Trump administration's crackdown on CDL standards. Oral argument in this case is set for Tuesday before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

What's interesting is that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), under the direction of the notoriously strident Randi Weingarten, is now joining the lawsuit, ostensibly because its members include bus drivers and other support drivers.

Today, the AFT moved to join an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation, seeking to stop the agency from seizing the personal records of 17 million commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the nonprofit that maintains the national database of driver records. The AFT is represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group and Murphy Anderson PLLC.

The AFT represents approximately 13,500 transportation workers, including school bus drivers and maintenance drivers, many of whom hold CDLs. The government’s demand puts their sensitive personal data—including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, license numbers, and state of record—at risk of being collected, shared across agencies and used for purposes they never consented to. 

So, why would the AFT get involved in this? Yes, some of their members may be CDL holders. That, we have to admit, is a legitimate reason for a union to get involved in a case like this one. Of course, one would think that the AFT would put the safety of the American people before these kinds of political attacks; but then, the AFT has never been about the kids. Not even when those kids are being injured by drivers who shouldn't be on the road at all, much less at the wheel of a big rig; in that, the AFT is much like the Democrat Party in general.

No, the AFT almost certainly has other considerations in mind. 

First, the AFT has always supported leftist causes and opposed any conservative initiative, no matter what it was. Furthermore, when Randi Weingarten says "jump" Democrats at all levels of government start croaking, "How high?" It's very likely that this, like many of the AFT's non-education-related political activism, isn't about education or about the kids their members are supposed to be teaching. It's about opposing Republicans at every turn, no matter what the issue.

Second, the AFT has always opposed anything, any initiative, any ruling, anything that in any way supports any effort to enforce immigration law. It's a popular cause among the left and is driven in large part, not by concern for the kids, not for any reason having to do with education or highway safety, but by opposition to Republicans and by Trump Derangement Syndrome on the part of Randi Weingarten.

You can view the AFT's memorandum of law supporting the lawsuit here.

Original Here

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