(Columbus, Ohio) — The Liberty Justice Center has filed an amicus brief in Sheldon v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees, urging the Ohio Supreme Court to protect public employees’ ability to challenge union dues deduction agreements in court.
The Liberty Justice Center joined the Freedom Foundation, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and Mackinac Center for Public Policy in filing the brief supporting Ohio public employee Matthew Sheldon. The brief asks the Ohio Supreme Court to ensure that Ohio workers retain access to courts when asserting common-law contract claims involving union dues authorizations.
“Public employees should not lose their right to challenge the validity of a contract simply because a union is involved,” said Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center. “Ohio workers deserve access to a court that can hear and decide ordinary questions of contract law. The Ohio Supreme Court should make clear that employees are not left without a meaningful forum to vindicate those rights.”
The case, Sheldon v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees, asks whether Ohio common pleas courts retain jurisdiction over common-law challenges to union dues deduction agreements, or whether such claims must instead be sent to the State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The amici argue that SERB was created to investigate and remedy unfair labor practices—not to decide common-law contract disputes involving issues such as consent, rescission, formation, and enforceability.
According to the brief, expanding SERB’s jurisdiction to encompass those claims would create what the amici describe as a “remedial vacuum,” leaving employees without any meaningful forum to litigate legitimate contract-law challenges to dues deduction agreements.
“The question in this case is not whether Mr. Sheldon ultimately prevails on his claims,” Schwab said. “The question is whether Ohio employees have any tribunal capable of deciding those claims at all.”
The amicus brief argues that Ohio law has long recognized the importance of common-law contract rights and that nothing in Ohio’s public-sector labor statutes demonstrates a clear legislative intent to strip courts of jurisdiction over such disputes. The brief further warns that allowing ordinary contract claims to be recharacterized as labor disputes simply because a union is involved would effectively deprive employees of access to judicial review.
The Liberty Justice Center is nationally recognized for its victory in Janus v. AFSCME, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that public employees cannot be compelled to financially support a union as a condition of government employment. Since that landmark decision, the Liberty Justice Center has continued to defend the rights of public employees across Ohio and the nation.
The amici ask the Ohio Supreme Court to reverse the lower court’s decision and hold that Ohio courts retain jurisdiction over common-law challenges to union dues deduction agreements.