The Salt Lake Tribune recently ran the following letter to the editor by Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason in response to an editorial regarding the Foundation's recent victory in federal court over attempts by union partisans to silence the Foundation's legal aid program using Utah's campaign finance regulations:

A newspaper should understand that the First Amendment isn't merely a "loophole," as implied by The Tribune editorial "Repairs needed: Campaign financing laws should be tougher" (Sept. 11) about the National Right to Work Foundation's federal court victory that struck down as unconstitutional key parts of Utah's campaign finance law.

After the foundation received from Utah teachers reports of coercion and illegal use of school property during a union-run petition drive, it ran radio and TV ads informing teachers of their rights and offering free legal aid. Union activists were upset that we would dare to help teacher victims, and they used state campaign finance laws to retaliate. Utah Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert blundered in trying to force our charitable organization to hand over contributor names and other information, even though we never engaged in any kind of electioneering. Herbert's ham-handed actions led to the deserving demise of Utah's broad and vague speech regulations.

The editorial noted that legislators must now go back to the drawing board. This time, they ought to read the First Amendment before putting pen to paper.

Stefan Gleason
Vice President
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc.
Springfield, Va.

The U.S. District Court has pinned back the ears of the Utah political class, particularly Lieutenant Governor Herbert -- slapping down key provisions of their unconstitutional campaign finance regulations. The law was exploited by political opponents to muzzle -- even criminalize -- certain speech.

When teachers in Utah began complaining to National Right to Work Foundation attorneys in early 2007 that union activists were swarming school property and pressuring them to sign petitions to overturn a school reform measure, the Foundation took quick action by running television and radio ads offering free legal aid.

That did not sit well with union activists who complained to the state's speech regulators. The Lieutenant Governor and staff sent threatening letters to the Foundation demanding contributor information and other private information.

In response, the Foundation -- with the invaluable help of the Madison Center for Free Speech -- filed a lawsuit to challenge parts of Utah's speech regulation laws as unconstitutional violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

In a summary judgment ruling issued late yesterday, Federal Judge Dee Benson agreed with the National Right to Work Foundation. Responding to the ruling, Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason issued the following statement:

Utah's political authorities, especially Lieutenant Governor Herbert, went way overboard, and their unconstitutional law was deservedly smacked down by the U.S. District Court.

Our organization received numerous reports from employees about coercion and other illegal actions during a union petition drive in 2007. What we do is provide free legal aid and information. That's all we do -- it's the Foundation's mission, whether the union militants engaged in the coercion like it or not.

Just because a teacher union activist doesn't like our public service legal-aid advertisements and files a complaint does not justify the state's politicians coming in and harassing us with unconstitutional regulation.

The Utah law at issue is one of the most unconstitutionally overbroad and overvague of all campaign finance laws in the nation. The Judge recognized this and, not surprisingly, ruled in our favor.

Politicians can't just come in and harass charities with draconian regulations that chill their voluntary, non-express-advocacy speech.

In a press release about the case James Bopp of the James Madison Center for Free Speech said:

This case was a perfect example of government overreaching into the very heart of the First Amendment... the Foundation was engaging in the very activities it always has, offering free legal aid to workers affected by coercive union activities, and because they happened to coincide with a ballot measure election, the state claimed that they were regulable.

This is a decisive victory for the First Amendment. Speech surrounding ballot measures is no less protected than speech about candidates, and regulation of political speech must be limited to express advocacy and organizations cannot be forced to register and report as a political committee unless they have the passage or defeat of a ballot measure as their major purpose.

The James Madison Center release can be downloaded here.

Pennsylvania Turnpike employees should watch the Teamsters union-Turnpike Commission talks closely as another union-ordered statewide strike looms.

Why" Past experience shows that Teamster union bosses tried to block Turnpike employees from exercising their constitutional rights to refrain from formal union membership and cut off compulsory dues unrelated to monopoly bargaining.

In recent months, the National Right to Work Foundation helped 28 Pennsylvania Turnpike employees file separate federal civil rights lawsuits against Teamsters union locals 77 and 250, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, and two Turnpike Commission officers for illegally seizing union dues from the employees’ paychecks.

The breakthrough came for the Turnpike employees when a federal judge ruled that Local 77’s union policy prohibiting employees from resigning from membership (so-called "maintenance of membership" clauses) likely violates First Amendment.

The federal judge enjoined the Teamsters union locals and the PTC from seizing the forced dues from the employees’ paychecks. But most importantly, the judge found that union officials’ actions demonstrated a “real or immediate danger to their First Amendment rights.”

Union officials commonly use the "maintenance of membership" clauses to trap workers in union ranks. And you can bet that as Teamsters union officials sit at the table with PTC officials, they’ll be pushing for this clause to stay so that union bosses can thwart any employee effort to reclaim forced dues.