Ben Branch v. Commonwealth Employment Relations

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on

LinkedIn

BOSTON – On January 8^th, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Ben Branch v. Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, in which the SJC will decide how the United States Supreme Court’s June 2018 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) will affect Massachusetts law.

Pioneer Institute, through its public interest law arm, PioneerLegal, has filed an amicus curiae brief in the case prepared by WilmerHale’s Mark Matuschak and Robert Kingsley Smith.

Professor Ben Branch has taught for 38 years at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management. For decades, he has objected to having to pay compulsory service fees. To stop having to pay without consent, Dr. Branch and three other non-union educators brought the lawsuit now before the SJC.

The PioneerLegal brief argues that the First Amendment precludes coercing non-union public employees into financially supporting speech preferred by unions. As held by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, consent is crucial; no money may be constitutionally taken for such purpose from a non-union public employee without that employee’s prior consent.

PioneerLegal was active in Janus, filing a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the case, and then filing a second friend-of-the-court brief during the Court’s deliberations.

“No rights are more essential than the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment,” said PioneerLegal Research Fellow Jim McKenna. “The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed and preserved that right in Janus, and the SJC now has the opportunity to apply that principle in Massachusetts.”

In Branch, the Supreme Judicial Court will consider the constitutionality of Massachusetts laws that allow the compulsory collection of fees from non-union public sector employees. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court has held non-consensual collection to be unconstitutional, the SJC is likely to strike down the statute.

About Pioneer Institute and PioneerLegal

Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.

PioneerLegal, as the public-interest law initiative of Pioneer, utilizes a legal-based approach to work to change policies that adversely affect the public interest in Pioneer’s core policy areas.

Receive Important Updates (ISSUES)

Related Posts:

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education…

Poll: Parents, Teachers, Legislators Support Reinstating Passage of U.S. History MCAS Test as High School Graduation Requirement

0 Comments

June 18, 2018

Strong majorities of parents, history and social studies teachers,…

BOSTON - Massachusetts Education Reform Act co-author and former…

Constitutional amendments in 38 states born of anti-Catholic…

Press Release: Pioneer Institute Filed Amicus Brief in Case Applying Supreme Court’s Janus Ruling to MA

Receive Important Updates (ISSUES)

Study: After-School Programs Can Help Improve Flat or Declining Math Achievement

Study Finds Vast Majority of Teacher Union Dues Fund State and National Affiliates

New Book on Massachusetts Charter Public Schools Touts Record of Achievement, Minimal Impact on District Finances

Study Finds Declining Student Achievement and Increased Harm to School Choice Since Common Core

Video Highlights Long-Running Journal that Publishes History Essays by High School Students

New Study Warns of Emergence of Two-Tiered Public Education System in Massachusetts

Study: No Longer A City On A Hill: Massachusetts Degrades Its K–12 History Standards

Poll: Parents, Teachers, Legislators Support Reinstating Passage of U.S. History MCAS Test as High School Graduation Requirement

Study: UMass Amherst Admissions Standards Now Higher for MA Students than Non-Residents

Study Finds MA Inter-District School Choice Program a Success, but Should Be Updated

Study: MA Private & Religious School Students Denied Federally Funded Special Education Services

Press Release: Birmingham Touts 1993 Ed Reform Act’s Success, Expresses Concerns about Recent Policies

Draft History and Social Studies Frameworks Continue Trend Toward Dumbing Down Public School Content

New Documentary Highlights Impact of Bigoted “Blaine Amendments”

Film Screenings at Area Catholic Schools to Educate Public about Barriers to School Choice

Study: Updated Massachusetts K-12 Standards Are Worse in English, Still Mediocre in Math

Press Release: Definitive Biographer of Pope St. John Paul II to Keynote Cristo Rey High Schools Event

2017 Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy to Focus on Politics and Polarization on American Campuses