March 22, 2011. Alabama Education Association asserts new law violates its guarantees of free speech and equal protection granted under US Constitution
By Travis Pillow
(March 21, 2011)
In a preview of the legal battles to come if a similar law is passed in Florida, Lynwood Smith, a federal judge in Alabama, has suspended a law banning automatic payroll deductions for members state employee unions, according to the Huntsville Times: #
Smith filed his ruling just before 5 p.m. In it, he stated that [the Alabama Education Association’s] lawyers had “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on their claim” that the new law violates the organization’s rights to free speech and equal protection as granted under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. # The lawsuit filed Feb. 25 also claimed that the ban was passed by the new Republican-led Legislature as retaliation for AEA’s historic support of Democratic candidates. #
Smith has not issued his final ruling on the Alabama law, but he did decide that the legal challenge has enough merit to suspend the law temporarily while the case plays out. #
Florida Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, has proposed a ban on payroll deductions for government employees, which unions have argued would stifle their right to free speech and create new hassles for their membership. #
Read more at floridaindependent.com