A federal appeals court reinstated a Michigan law last week that bars school districts from deducting teachers’ union dues for their employees.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, ruled 2-1 that a 2012 measure that was meant as “a check on union power” likely does not violate the free-speech or equal-protection rights of teachers’ unions. The court threw out a lower court’s injunction that had kept the law from taking effect.
The National Education Association and its Michigan affiliate argued that by barring only school employers as opposed to cities, counties, or other agencies from withholding dues for union-affiliated employees, the state was practicing a form of viewpoint discrimination that infringed the free-speech rights of the teachers’ unions.
