News
December 11, 2024 | By Benjamin Yount
Policy Issues
Constitution

Latest ACT-10 Lawsuit Focuses on First Amendment, “Compelled Speech”

WILL said the Dane County judge’s ruling on Act-10 does not overrule the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on forced union dues and compelled political speech.

WILL Challenges Dane County Judge's Act 10 Ruling

Act-10 may be headed back toward the United States Supreme Court.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Tuesday filed a case that challenges the dismissal of the state’s law on First Amendment grounds.

WILL is asking to represent a Kenosha school teacher, Kristi Koschkee, who says she doesn’t want to be forced back into the Kenosha Education Association.

“Ms. Koschkee’s worst fears have been realized. As a general municipal employee who does not belong to or wish to join, subsidize, associate with, or support her local union, Ms. Koschkee depended for her protection on the numerous statutory privileges the Legislature provided her via Act 10. These include the prohibition on payroll deductions, which eliminated any incentive for unions to pressure employees like Ms. Koschkee into ‘voluntary’ dues deductions,” WILL wrote in its brief to the court.

WILL said the Kenosha Education Association has not held a vote on its current recertification process.

A Dane County Judge last week declared Act-10 to be unconstitutional because it separated public employees into different categories, and some were covered by Act-10’s collective bargaining changes while others weren’t.

WILL, which on Tuesday said it was created back in 2011 partially because of the legal fight that unfolded after Act-10, said the Dane County judge’s ruling on Act-10 does not overrule the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on forced union dues and compelled political speech.

“In the 2018 case of Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme Court concluded that forcing public employees to subsidize a union they choose not to join violates the First Amendment. In so doing, the Court overruled a 1977 case, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education,” WILL’s brief added.

“While the pre-Act 10 Wisconsin labor law landscape may have passed constitutional muster under Abood, it is flatly inconsistent with Janus. Yet [the Dane County] Court’s final order now resurrects that unlawful statutory scheme, to the detriment of Ms. Koschkee’s First Amendment rights.”

“Not only has Act 10 survived more than a decade of state and federal court challenges, but it set a national precedent for protecting taxpayers and public employees everywhere. The recent decision effectively rolls Wisconsin law back to pre-Act 10, and that law violates the First Amendment,” WILL attorney Lucas Veber said in a statement.

While the Dane County’s decision is based in state court, and will likely end-up under appeal before the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court, WILL’s First Amendment challenge could put ACT-10 on a path back to the federal court, where it was upheld in the past.

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