Supreme Court Overturns Calif. Law Restricting Employers’ Anti-Union Speech
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a California law that barred employers from using state money to oppose union activities.
The 7-2 decision said the state law is pre-empted by a federal labor law that bars states from restricting the rights of employers to speak out about labor organizing, SCOTUSblog reports. The 2000 California law was the first of its kind, the Associated Press reports.
New York has passed a more limited version of the law, according to the AP story.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog). He wrote that California may not indirectly regulate employer speech through the funding restrictions, just as it cannot regulate the speech by express regulation.
The case was Chamber of Commerce v. Brown.
