A federal judge refused to block key parts of a new Florida law that places additional restrictions on public-employee unions, turning down a request from teachers unions that argue the law violates First Amendment and contract rights.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker declined to issue a preliminary injunction, ruling that the Florida Education Association and other unions had not shown they had legal standing. The 12-page ruling came after Walker held a more than three-hour hearing Friday.
The unions sought the injunction against parts of the law that require union members to fill out new government-worded membership forms and prevent union dues from being deducted from workers’ paychecks.
The FEA and three other unions contend that the membership-form requirement violates First Amendment rights because it would compel them to provide government messages to workers about issues such as Florida being a right-to-work state. But Walker wrote that the law does not require unions to spread government messages.
“[The] challenged provision commands employees who desire to join a union to sign and date the government-drafted form,” Walker wrote. “That they must do so ‘with the bargaining agent’ does not mean the bargaining agent must disseminate the form, post the state’s message, or otherwise communicate any message on the state’s behalf.”
Walker acknowledged that unions likely would play a major role in distributing the forms, at least in part because of another part of...
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