State think tanks encourage US Supreme Court to hear first major post-Janus workplace freedom case
Thirteen state-based think tanks have filed amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court in support of The Buckeye Institute’s latest workplace freedom case: Uradnik v. Inter Faculty Organization. Their signatures bring the total support thus far to 21 policy organizations, including both state-based think tanks and national organizations.
In petitioning the US Supreme Court, Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and a lead attorney on the case said, “After years of being forced to speak through a union that advocated against her interests, today Professor Uradnik spoke in her own voice, and asked the Supreme Court to protect her First Amendment rights. In its landmark Janus decision, the US Supreme Court raised the question many of us had asked, namely if it violates the First Amendment to compel financial support for union advocacy, how on earth can states require these same public employees to speak through unions that many of them choose not to join? In what could be another landmark case in labor law, The Buckeye Institute is extending the opportunity for the court to answer that question definitively.”
Uradnik v. Inter Faculty Organization focuses on the issue of unions’ exclusive representation, a practice which forces public-sector employees to accept the union as their sole representative in workplace matters and negotiations. The case argues that exclusive representation is unconstitutional because it violates public-sector employees First Amendment rights. Plaintiff Kathy Uradnik, a Minnesota professor, is asking the US Supreme Court to restore and protect her First Amendment rights so that she can have a voice and a choice in who represents her interests in the workplace.
This case, brought by The Buckeye Institute, is the first of its kind following the Janus v. AFSCME decision to approach the US Supreme Court with a challenge to exclusive representation.
The Amicus curiae briefs provide the Court with relevant information and insight that have bearing on the case and may help the Court decide whether to take up this legal question.
Center of the American Experiment, a state-based think tank and SPN member in Minnesota, filed an amicus brief in support of Uradnik v. Inter Faculty Organization and garnered the signatures of 17 additional organizations, including 12 state think tanks:
Upon filing the brief, Kim Crockett, vice president and general counsel of Center of the American Experiment, said:
“Professor Kathy Uradnik, from right here in Minnesota, has bravely taken a stand demanding her First Amendment rights by asking the US Supreme Court to end unfair laws that force her, and other Minnesotans, to speak through a union she is not a member of…The Janus v. AFSCME decision raised serious questions about the constitutionality of exclusive representation—questions which the U.S. Supreme Court needs to resolve.”
State Policy Network applauds The Buckeye Institute, Center of the American Experiment, and their fellow state-based think tanks for their work to protect public-sector employees’ First Amendment rights.
