In the Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress (PSC) case, six City University of New York professors seek to invalidate a New York state law that forces the “representation” of the PSC union on t…
Union officials often bemoan how so-called “dark money” in politics is supposedly being used to “rig the system” against workers.favor by buying undue political influence with money seized from workers under threat of termination if they refuse to pay.
, the justices ruled that the First Amendment protects public employees from being forced to subsidize government-union speech.has been massive. The court declared unconstitutional a legal regime union officials used to force workers to subsidize tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of union political action over the years.
In the vast majority of US states, even post-Janus, laws still empower union officials to force their one-size-fits-all “representation” on all workers in a public sector workplace, even those that oppose the union or voted against its presence. Janus went a long way toward reducing union bosses’ stranglehold over public workers’ rights and their inordinate influence over government.But it’s clear that, to fully protect government workers’ First Amendment rights, union officials must not be able to force public workers under their monopoly “representation.”