Minnesota State Board for Community Colleges v. Knight et al. (465 U.S. 271)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 21, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 465 U.S. 271 · 104 S. Ct. 1058
- Decided
- February 21, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. The State of Minnesota authorizes its public employees to bargain collectively over terms and conditions of employment. It also requires public employers to engage in official exchanges of views with their professional employees on policy questions relating to employment but outside the scope of mandatory bargaining. If professional employees forming an appropriate bargaining unit have selected an exclusive representative for mandatory bargaining, their employer may exchange views on nonmandatory subjects only with the exclusive representative. The question presented in these cases is whether this restriction on participation in the nonmandatory-subject exchange process violates the constitutional rights of professional employees within the bargaining unit who are not members of the exclusive representative and who may disagree with its views. We hold that it does not. I A In 1971, the Minnesota Legislature adopted the Public Employment Labor Relations Act (PELRA), Minn. Stat. § 179.61 et seq. (1982), to establish “orderly and constructive relationships between all public employers and their employees . . . .” § 179.61. The public employers covered by the law are, broadly speaking, the State and its political subdivisions, agencies, and instrumentalities. §179.63. In its amended form, as in its original form, PELRA provides…
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