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MARCH 2021
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LIVING LIBERTY A Publication of the Freedom Foundation
SCOTUS asked to hear case that could invalidate all public-sector union contracts
Electronic Service Requested
Freedom Foundation PO Box 552 Olympia, WA 98507
O
ver the past three years, since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Janus v. AFSCME that mandatory union membership and dues in the public workplace were a violation of the First Amendment, tens of thousands of government employees have successfully opted out — despite the determined opposition of unions and their allies in elected office. But if the justices side with the Freedom Foundation in a new case just appealed to the court in February, the whole script will flip. Instead of millions of public employees nationwide fighting to get out, the unions will literally have no members — or money — and be forced to work fulltime in hopes of coaxing members back in. Freedom Foundation attorneys on Feb. 11 filed a writ of certiorari with the court in Belgau v. Inslee, which deals with several Washington state employees whose unions continued to deduct dues from their paycheck after they had requested their freedom. The unions argued that workers can terminate their membership but must continue paying dues because they signed a membership form limiting out-outs only to a two-week window every year. Other lawsuits have been filed disputing aspects of the unions’ claims, but Belgau is the first to argue they are all irrelevant under any circumstances.
By JEFF RHODES, VP for News & Information
Belgau relies on language from Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Janus emphasizing that: 1. (n)either an agency fee nor any other payment to the union may be deducted from a nonmember’s wages, nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay; and, 2. (b)y agreeing to pay, nonmembers are waiving their First Amendment rights, and such a waiver cannot be presumed. In layman’s terms, that means a signed membership card isn’t enough. Before it is considered valid, the union must first be able to prove the worker understood he or she had the right not to sign — and voluntarily waived that right. “Belgau isn’t some radical new idea,” said James Abernathy, Freedom Foundation legal counsel. “It’s just a corollary to Janus — and it wouldn’t even be necessary if the states and unions had complied with the ruling to begin with.” Abernathy concluded, “Belgau provides the Supreme Court an opportunity to re-state what already should have been clear to courts like the 9th Circuit: Public employees deserve to know their rights before government employers and unions can begin siphoning their wages.” Freedom Foundation National Director Aaron Withe added, “With the help of politicians corrupted by dues money, unions have suppressed public employees’ First Amendment rights by restricting their ability to decline union association altogether. “The justices,” he continued, “have a golden opportunity here to reinforce their clearly stated intent in Janus — that public employees can freely choose to pay, or not pay, government unions.”
