Todd v. AFSCME

On July 21, the Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Todd v. AFSCME because a lower court’s prior ruling in the case violates Supreme Court precedent.

In March 2021, an employee of the Minnesota Department of Human Services sued a local AFSCME chapter for violating his constitutional rights. His lawsuit argued that the union had forged his signature to claim he was a union member and thereby justify withholding dues from each of his paychecks—without his consent—to fund union activities. This was a clear violation of his First Amendment rights under the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME.

Despite this precedent, a lower court dismissed the case in November 2021. The court ruled that the union was a private entity, not a state actor, and therefore declined to apply First Amendment scrutiny to the union’s actions.

On July 21, the Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to take up the case and issue a ruling to defend workers’ rights. The brief argues that the lower court’s ruling violates Janus v. AFSCME, because unions qualify as state actors when they are working in tandem with local and state governments to withhold union dues from public employees.

The Liberty Justice Center’s brief also argues that the Supreme Court should take up the lawsuit because the lower court’s ruling creates a “circuit split”—that is, a conflict in legal precedent where courts rule in diametrically opposing ways on closely related cases, creating unclear rules for other courts to follow. In these cases, a higher court must step in to affirm which court’s interpretation is correct and clarify precedent for future lawsuits.

“The court should grant this petition and make clear that government systems providing the use of government power for the benefit of public-sector unions constitute state action and should be subject to constitutional restraints,” wrote Ryan Morrison, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, in the brief’s conclusion.

Learn more about the Liberty Justice Center’s landmark victory for workers’ rights in Janus v. AFSCME here.

The Liberty Justice Center continues to fight for workers’ rights across the country, at no cost to its clients or taxpayers.