Protect the 1st Asks Supreme Court to Recognize The Rights of Public Employees

Creator: J. Scott Applewhite | Credit: AP Copyright: Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Today Protect The 1st filed an amicus brief, drafted by the organization’s regular outside counsel and joined by several other groups, asking the Supreme Court to hear Thompson v. Marietta Education Association. The case asks whether public employees have a First Amendment right to decline to be represented by unions. Under Ohio law, Jade Thompson, a public-school teacher, is required to accept the Marietta Education Association as her exclusive representative in bargaining arrangements. Thompson, however, isn’t a member of the Association, and would—but for the law—reject the union’s representation.
 
There is something fundamentally wrong—and unconstitutional—about a law that requires you to accept the message or representation of another group. Recognizing that the First Amendment rights to speak and associate freely with others also includes the rights to not speak and to decline such association, Protect the 1st and a large group of other public policy research organizations and advocacy groups joined a chorus of other amici today urging the Court to hear the case.
 
The brief can be read here.