No. 22-577

Jodee Wright v. Service Employees International Union Local 503, et al.

Lower Court: Ninth Circuit
Docketed: 2022-12-21
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Amici (1)Response Waived
Tags: civil-rights collective-bargaining due-process first-amendment fourteenth-amendment free-speech freedom-of-speech labor-law public-sector union-dues
Key Terms:
SocialSecurity DueProcess FirstAmendment LaborRelations Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri Jurisdiction
Latest Conference: 2023-01-20
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Do the constitutional guarantees of Freedom of Speech and Due Process of law create an affirmative duty for government employers to ensure employees' consent before deducting union dues from employees' wages?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION PRESENTED Oregon’s collective bargaining system puts unions in exclusive control of deducting union dues from public employees’ wages. State employers must presume the accuracy of a union’s representation that employees have consented to dues payments, even if employees in fact have not consented to such deductions. Or. Rev. Stat. § 243.806. Neither Petitioner Wright nor Petitioner Zielinski ever consented to union membership or dues payments. Yet under Oregon’s system, their State employers deducted union dues from their wages relying on the list provided by Service Employees International Union, Local 503 (“SEIU” or “union”). Petitioners brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to challenge Oregon’s dues deduction procedure and seek repayment of unlawfully deducted dues. The Ninth Circuit declined to apply constitutional scrutiny to Oregon’s union dues deduction procedure, holding that the Constitution imposes no duty on government entities to ensure employees affirmatively consent to the government’s deduction of union dues from their wages. Petitioners challenge this holding. The question presented is: Do the constitutional guarantees of Freedom of Speech and Due Process of law create an affirmative duty for government employers to ensure employees’ consent before deducting union dues from employees’ wages? (i)

Docket Entries

2023-01-23
Petition DENIED
2023-01-23
Petition DENIED.
2023-01-16
2023-01-04
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/20/2023.
2022-12-30
Waiver of right of respondents Oregon Department of Administrative Services and Katy Coba to respond filed.
2022-12-27
Waiver of right of respondent Service Employees International Union, Local 503 to respond filed.
2022-12-19
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 20, 2023)

Attorneys

Jodee Wright and Christopher Zielinski
Rebekah Christine MillardFreedom Foundation, Petitioner
Rebekah Christine MillardFreedom Foundation, Petitioner
Oregon Department of Administrative Services and Katy Coba
Benjamin Noah GutmanOregon Department of Justice, Respondent
Benjamin Noah GutmanOregon Department of Justice, Respondent
Service Employees International Union, Local 503
Scott A. KronlandAltshuler Berzon, LLP, Respondent
Scott A. KronlandAltshuler Berzon, LLP, Respondent
Upper Midwest Law Center
James Vincent Francis DickeyUpper Midwest Law Center, Amicus
James Vincent Francis DickeyUpper Midwest Law Center, Amicus