A Sixth Circuit panel declines to strike down a state law under which public schools will no longer withhold union dues from teachers’ salaries. The Michigan Education Association had claimed that Public Act 53 interfered with its First Amendment right to speak. [David Shepardson, Detroit News]
2 Comments
First amendment rights to shake down taxpayers and their “members”.
I have sympathy with libertarian arguments that the teachers’ unions should collect the dues themselves. But the dissent did raise a point with some philosophical appeal– why are only *some* unions losing the automatic collection privilege? Might their political viewpoint have something to do with it?
The Republican-leaning policemen’s union got a pass.
The Republican legislature might argue they didn’t want trouble with the policemen’s union at a time when other unions are threatening disruption and thuggery to get their way. But it is not clear how much such realpolitik passes Constitutional muster.