Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute joined with the Liberty Justice Center and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in filing an amicus brief calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Belgau v. Inslee, which calls on the court to re-affirm the First Amendment rights of public workers that were recognized under Janus v. AFSCME.
Following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Melissa Belgau and six other Washington State public employees resigned their union memberships and requested that union dues and fees stop being deducted from their paychecks. The state of Washington and the Washington Federation of State Employees refused to stop taking this money, denying the workers their First Amendment rights clearly recognized under Janus.
The amicus brief was filed on behalf of Cara O’Callaghan, an employee with the University of California, Santa Barbara; Joanne Troesch and Ifeoma Nkemdi, two Chicago public school employees; Chelsea Kolacki, an employee with the Maumee City School District near Toledo, Ohio; and Michelle Cymbor, an employee with the Springfield Local School District, outside of Akron, Ohio. Government unions have denied the clear requests of each of these five public employees to stop deducting money from their paychecks.
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UPDATE: June 21, 2021, cert was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States.