Ben Ysursa, Idaho Secretary of State, et al. v. Pocatello Education Association et al. (555 U.S. 353)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 24, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 555 U.S. 353 · 129 S. Ct. 1093
- Decided
- February 24, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2008
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. Under Idaho law, a public employee may elect to have a portion of his wages deducted by his employer and remitted to his union to pay union dues. He may not, however, choose to have an amount deducted and remitted to the union’s political action committee, because Idaho law prohibits payroll deductions for political activities. A group of unions representing Idaho public employees challenged this limitation. They conceded that the limitation was valid as applied at the state level, but argued that it violated their First Amendment rights when applied to county, municipal, school district, and other local public employers. We do not agree. The First Amendment prohibits government from “abridging the freedom of speech”; it does not confer an affirmative right to use government payroll mechanisms for the purpose of obtaining funds for expression. Idaho’s law does not restrict political speech, but rather declines to promote that speech by allowing public employee checkoffs for political activities. Such a decision is reasonable in light of the State’s interest in avoiding the appearance that carrying out the public’s business is tainted by partisan political activity. That interest extends to government at the local as well as state level, and nothing in the First Amendment prevents a State from determining that its…
Excerpt of a 20,501-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.