{"id":18168,"date":"2017-02-13T09:10:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T14:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=18168"},"modified":"2017-02-16T10:23:33","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:23:33","slug":"michigan-unions-lose-campaign-finance-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/02\/13\/michigan-unions-lose-campaign-finance-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Unions Lose Campaign Finance Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI (Courthouse News) – 2\/10\/17 – Michigan\u2019s elimination of payroll deductions to political candidates does not infringe on union employees\u2019 First Amendment rights, but it cannot be implemented until current collective-bargaining agreements expire, the Sixth Circuit ruled.<\/p>\n

Argued<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>last week,\u00a0<\/span>Michigan<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>State AFL-CIO v. Schuette\u00a0<\/span><\/em>focused on changes made to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, or MCFA, following the passage of Public Act 269 in April 2016.<\/p>\n

The bill made it a felony for corporations to use payroll deductions to support political candidates through \u201cseparate segregated funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unions that filed suit against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson and Attorney General Bill Schuette argued that the elimination of these \u201cPAC check-offs\u201d violated not only their members\u2019 First Amendment rights, but also the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

In a nine-page\u00a0<\/span>ruling<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>issued Thursday, Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton cited the 1998 Sixth Circuit case\u00a0<\/span>Toledo Area AFL-CIO Council v. Pizza<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>extensively in his opinion, and determined that Michigan cannot enforce \u201cthe contested provision \u2026 [until] the end of the relevant collective bargaining agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Michigan law prohibits the administration of payroll deduction programs for union political action committees,\u201d he wrote for a three-judge panel. \u201cJust so in\u00a0<\/span>Pizza<\/em>. The unions have contracts that provide for payroll deductions. Just so in\u00a0<\/span>Pizza<\/em>. The Michigan law prohibits adherence to these agreements. Just so in\u00a0<\/span>Pizza<\/em>. Michigan offers no interest distinct from those considered in\u00a0<\/span>Pizza<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>to justify removing the PAC check-off obligations from the union contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the panel found the unions to be \u201con the right side\u201d of the legal argument regarding the Contracts Clause, it was unconvinced by their free speech claims.<\/p>\n

Judge Sutton again cited the 1998 ruling in\u00a0<\/span>Pizza<\/em>, which \u201cheld that the \u2018wage checkoff ban simply [did] not impinge, in a constitutionally significant manner, on any First Amendment rights.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was true then about opportunities to speak with one\u2019s pocketbook is even more true today. Gone are the days when hard copy checks amounted to the primary, almost only, currency of \u2013 legal \u2013 political fundraising,\u201d Sutton wrote. \u201cThe ever-growing modern options form a colorful array \u2013 from the once new and now traditional (monthly credit card or automatic bank withdrawals) to the now avant-garde and soon to be traditional (PayPal or Venmo).\u201d (Parentheses in original.)<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cAs a practical matter, unions retain a number of effective options for soliciting political donations and union members have a number of ways for making them \u2013 say a monthly bank account withdrawal, which is little different from a monthly paycheck withdrawal through a PAC check-off.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his conclusion, Sutton cited the Seventh Circuit decision in\u00a0<\/span>Sweeney v. Pence<\/em>, which dealt with Indiana\u2019s Right to Work Act and mandatory union dues or membership fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court held that the law did not infringe the unions\u2019 First Amendment rights merely because it made it more difficult for them to collect funds,\u201d Sutton wrote. \u201cThe court\u2019s assessment of the claim applies with equal force here: the State\u2019s \u2018decision not to subsidize the exercise of a fundamental right\u2019 did not itself infringe that right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI (Courthouse News) – 2\/10\/17 – Michigan\u2019s elimination of payroll deductions to political candidates does not infringe on union employees\u2019 First Amendment rights, but it cannot be implemented until current collective-bargaining agreements expire, the Sixth Circuit ruled. Argued\u00a0last week,\u00a0Michigan\u00a0State AFL-CIO v. Schuette\u00a0focused on changes made to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, or MCFA, following the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18169,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18168\/revisions\/18169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}