On February 20, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of an Ohio school district employee who quit her union in 2022—only to be told four months later that the union had begun taking dues from her paycheck again.
Denise Cogar joined the Ohio Association of Public School Employees over 20 years ago when she began working as a paraprofessional for the Perry Local School District in Ohio. When she chose to withdraw her membership in 2022, the union confirmed her withdrawal and informed the school district so it would stop withholding union dues from her paychecks. The school district, in turn, stopped withholding dues from her wages—briefly.
Four months later, the union announced that it had made a mistake—because she had not made her request during the union’s once-yearly “opt-out window,” the union was going to start taking dues from her paychecks again.
After waiting months for the opt-out window to come around, Denise mailed the union another request to stop paying dues. This time, the union told her it would not stop withholding money from her paychecks because it had received her request in the mail one day before the window. The union waited to tell her this until after the opt-out window had closed—so Denise would have to wait another year to submit her request and, in the meantime, keep paying dues to a union she had quit long ago.
Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME, public-sector unions can’t play games with employees’ First Amendment rights like this. The Liberty Justice Center stepped in to challenge these forced union dues, representing Ms. Cogar in federal court in Ohio.
The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit argued that the union’s actions violated Ms. Cogar’s First Amendment rights under the 2018 Supreme Court decision Janus v. AFSCME. Public employers cannot give an employee’s money to a public-sector union “unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay.” Doing so violates the employee’s First Amendment rights. Because the union confirmed that Ms. Cogar was a non-member and informed the school district to stop withholding dues from her paychecks, the union had a legal obligation to secure her “affirmative consent” before beginning to withhold dues again.
In a win for workers’ rights, following the Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit, the Ohio Association of Public School Employees agreed to stop withholding dues from Ms. Cogar’s paycheck and to refund the dues that had been taken after the union accepted her resignation.
“It shouldn’t have taken a federal lawsuit, but we are pleased that the union has chosen to respect Denise’s First Amendment rights,” said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
“Taking money from my paycheck—when I wasn’t a union member and hadn’t paid dues for four months—was unfair and unconstitutional,” said plaintiff Denise Cogar. “But because the Liberty Justice Center stepped in to defend me, I got back my money and my rights.”
Cogar v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on February 20, 2024.
Jeffrey M. Schwab is a Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, where he litigates cases to protect the rights to free speech, economic liberty, private property and other Constitutional rights in both federal and state courts across the country.
James McQuaid is a staff attorney at Liberty Justice Center where he assists in cases to protect the rights to free speech, economic liberty, private property, and other Constitutional rights in courts across the country.
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