Articles

The California Teachers Association—one of the most politically powerful groups in the state—may have to start funding its political campaigns with the money of only those teachers who actually support its goals.  Unlike other groups that seek donations from like-minded people who support the organizations' goals, the CTA has long benefited fr ...

New York laws and regulations deem family daycare providers (individuals who operate daycare businesses in their homes) to be "public employees" and requires a union to be the daycare providers' exclusive representative for bargaining with (e.g., lobbying) the state over daycare regulations and policies. The workers who are "deemed" public employee ...

caption id="attachment_44639" align="alignright" width="300" Is she a public employee?/caption The Supreme Court often prefers that issues "percolate" in the lower courts for some time so that Circuit court and state supreme court judges have an opportunity to address all facets and implications of the arguments prior to high court review. It ensu ...

Is communism illegal? Naively, I thought the answer to that question was obvious. But apparently I was wrong. In California, government employees may be fired solely because they are a member of the Communist Party. What if they're great at their job? Doesn't matter. What if their ideas are irrelevant to their job? Doesn't matter. What if they're t ...

Do states require drinkers to buy their scotch and sodas at a government-run bar? Well, no. But 31 states do require all attorneys to belong to a government-run bar association as a condition for practicing law. Arnold Fleck, a North Dakota lawyer, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to free him from his forced association with the State Bar Associati ...

This morning the Ninth Circuit released this opinion in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra, a case about whether California can demand confidential donor forms from nonprofit organizations operating within the state. Twice the district court has found that the law violates  donors' First Amendment rights of free speech and associati ...

In Fleck v. Wetch, North Dakota lawyer Arnold Fleck seeks to be free from his forced association with the State Bar Association of North Dakota. After considering his petition for writ of certiorari at eight consecutive conferences, the Supreme Court today granted the petition, vacated the decision below, and remanded for reconsideration in light o ...

Public employees are a diverse group. Just as they don't all look alike, neither do they think alike. Under union-backed "exclusive representation" laws, however, they must speak with a single voice: the union's voice. In Massachusetts, four educators employed by the University of Massachusetts are challenging the state law that gives a union the s ...