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On Friday, the first hearing will be held in the Vergara v. California, the lawsuit that, in terms of its massive size and scope, one union lawyer described “Doe v. Deasy on steroids.”

Brought about by an organization called Students Matter, which is funded by wealthy tech entrepreneur David Welch, the suit takes aim at five laws in California: one that grants tenure to teachers after 18 months, three that make it extremely difficult to fire teachers with tenure, and the so-called “Last hired, first fired” [LIFO] law that mandates seniority based firing. You can read the full complaint here. See also: Firing the Bad Teachers LA Weekly).

The State of California has filed motion to dismiss the suit, on which the judge is expected to rule on Friday. If the judge agrees to hear the case, the trial is probably still at least a year away.  LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, who was named as a defendant in Doe v. Deasy, gave a deposition in favor of the plaintiffs’ argument and, when we spoke to him in August, said he expected to be deposed in Vergara as well.

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