Protect The 1st Foundation
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
Picture

Protect The 1st Asks SCOTUS to Recognize First Amendment & Allow Americans to Decline to Fund Mandatory Speech

7/2/2021

 
Picture
​Does the Constitution allow Americans to be forced to subsidize ideological or political speech they disagree with? In a brief filed in the Supreme Court Friday in a case called Crowe v. Oregon State Bar, Protect The 1st argued that it does not.
 
The facts of the case involved attorneys forced by their mandatory bar association to fund the propagation of a variety of politically charged ideas that several Oregon attorneys did not want to push. These attorneys are not alone. Currently, attorneys in 31 states and the District of Columbia are compelled to finance mandatory bar organizations and, in the process, their speech. In its brief, Protect The First wrote:
 
“This puts attorneys in these states in an impossible dilemma; they must decide between ‘betraying their own convictions’ and earning a living by practicing law … Such a choice is no choice at all.”
 
It would be a mistake, however, to consider this a case solely about the rights of attorneys. As often happens, Crowe asks the Court to articulate the proper First Amendment standard for compelled speech. And it isn’t difficult to identify other areas where that standard, properly articulated, could have real-world implications for groups much more sympathetic than attorneys. Public universities, for example, often charge students mandatory activity fees, which then fund a variety of campus clubs furthering a variety of different goals. Any standard articulated in Crowe could have implications for them, too.
 
“This case is just one illustration of the broader problem of governments giving seemingly private members organizations, like labor unions, the power to force members to support political speech with which some members disagree,” said Gene Schaerr, general counsel of Protect The 1st. “The Court should recognize that mandatory political speech violates the First Amendment unless it can satisfy some heightened form of First Amendment scrutiny. We hope the Court will take the case.”

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Amicus Briefs
    Analysis
    Book Banning
    Campus Speech
    Censorship
    Congress
    Court Hearings
    Donor Privacy
    Due Process
    First Amendment
    First Amendment Online
    Freedom Of Press
    Freedom Of Religion
    Freedom Of Speech
    Government Transparency
    In The Media
    Journalism
    Law Enforcement
    Legal
    Legislation
    Legislative Agenda
    Letters To Congress
    Motions
    News
    Online Speech
    Opinion
    Parental Rights
    PRESS Act
    PT1 Amicus Briefs
    Save Oak Flat
    School Choice
    SCOTUS
    Section 230
    Speaking Of The First Amendment
    Supreme Court

    RSS Feed

we  the  people.

LET  YOUR  VOICE  BE  HEARD:


ABOUT

Who We Are

​Leadership

ISSUES

1st Amendment

TAKE ACTION

Donate

​Contact Us
® Copyright 2024 Protect The 1st Foundation