Pocatello Educ. Ass’n v. Heideman, No. 06-35004 (9th Cir. Oct. 5, 2007)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, MT, NV, OR, WA, GU, MP) has ruled that Idaho’s 2003 Voluntary Contributions Act (VCA), which bans payroll deductions from employees’ wages for political activities, violates the First Amendment as applied to local government and school district employees. Several labor organizations, including the Idaho Education Association, sued the State of Idaho in federal court, alleging that the VCA violates their First Amendment free speech and Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights. The state conceded that all the challenged provisions of the VCA were unconstitutional, except the provision banning payroll deductions for political activities. The district court held the ban to be constitutional as applied to the state government itself, but not as to private and local government employers. The state appealed, arguing that the ban could be applied to local government employers as well.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The appellate court began by restating the legal principle that restrictions on "voluntary political contributions burden political speech, which is protected by the First Amendment…." While conceding the VCA does not prohibit unions from participating in political activities, the court found that it hinders their ability to do so by eliminating one of the means of collecting funds for that purpose. The VCA contains content-based restrictions on political speech, the court found, which ordinarily would subject the act to strict judicial scrutiny. That high standard involves a presumption of invalidity that requires the government to demonstrate that the act is narrowly tailored to a serve a compelling governmental interest. The state conceded that the law would "easily fail" strict scrutiny because the state had failed to proffer any compelling interest in favor of the VCA.
Instead, the state argued the VCA was exempt from strict scrutiny because the payroll deduction programs of local governments constitute nonpublic fora belonging to the state. The payroll deduction provision "is therefore valid because it is viewpoint neutral, applying to all employers and to any type of political contribution," the state reasoned, and "is plainly reasonable given Idaho’s interest in its payroll system not assisting or having the appearance of assisting with political matters." After conducting a lengthy forum analysis, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the state had failed to establish that it is the proprietor of local workplaces or of local government payroll systems. "The State’s relationship with the local governments instead resembles that of a regulator who possesses broad powers over them," the court found, noting that "[l]ocal governments are independent corporations and many are explicitly granted the right to own and control their own property."
Pocatello Educ. Ass’n v. Heideman, No. 06-35004 (9th Cir. Oct. 5, 2007)