Supreme Court to review ban on payroll deductions for union politicking
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an Idaho state law that bars school districts and other local government agencies from making deductions from union members' paychecks for the unions' political activities. The court has granted the state’s request for review in Ysursa v. Pocatello Education Association (No. 07-869), in which the state is defending the federal constitutionality of its Voluntary Contributions Act. The law, passed in 2003, was backed in Idaho and in other states by “right to work” forces. The law was challenged by the Idaho Education Association, its Pocatello local affiliate, and other public-employee unions in the state. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the provision as applied to local government employers violates the First Amendment free-speech rights of the unions. In its appeal to the Supreme Court, Idaho said the 9th Circuit court “has made a striking and unprecedented incursion into the authority of state legislatures to control the employment practices of political subdivisions.” The Idaho Education Association and the other public-employee unions called on the high court to reject Utah’s petition, noting that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, had recently made a similar ruling in striking down Utah’s version of the Voluntary Contributions Act, and thus no conflict existed among the federal courts of appeals on the issue. But in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of Idaho’s appeal, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and other groups said the 9th and 10th Circuit rulings conflicted with a 1998 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, that upheld an Ohio law that is similar to the Voluntary Contributions Act. The justices will hear arguments in the Idaho case sometime during their next term, which begins in October.
Source: Education Week, 3/31/08, By Mark Walsh
[Editor’s Note: Legal Clips summaries of both the Ninth Circuit and the Tenth Circuit decisions are below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Pocatello Educ. Ass’n v. Heideman
NSBA School Law pages on Utah Educ. Ass’n v. Shurtleff