Utah Educ. Ass'n v. Shurtleff
| Decision Date | 10 January 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-4142.,06-4142. |
| Parties | UTAH EDUCATION ASSOCIATION; Utah State AFL-CIO; American Federation of Teachers-Utah; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1004; Utah School Employees Association; and Professional Firefighters of. Utah, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Mark SHURTLEFF, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of Utah, Defendant-Appellant, and Sutherland Institute; Utah Taxpayers Association; Evergreen Freedom Foundation; Parents for Choice in Education; National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc., Amici Curiae. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Nancy L. Kemp, Assistant Utah Attorney. General, Salt Lake City, Utah (Mark L. Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General, and Thom D. Roberts, Assistant Utah Attorney General, with her on the briefs), for Defendant-Appellant.
Jeremiah A. Collins, Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., Washington D.C. (Michael T. McCoy and Clover R. Meaders, Utah Education Association, Murray, Utah; Arthur F. Sandack, Salt Lake City, Utah; David J. Strom and Stephanie Baxter, Washington, D.C.; Thomas A. Woodley and Douglas L. Steele, Woodley & McGillivary, Washington, D.C.; Larry P. Weinberg, Washington, D.C., with him on the brief), for the Plaintiffs-Appellees.
Maxwell A. Miller and Scott S. Bell, Parsons Behle & Latimer, Salt Lake City, Utah, filed an amid curiae brief on behalf of Defendant-Appellant.
Before LUCERO and MURPHY, Circuit Judges, and ROBINSON,* District Court Judge.
Utah's Voluntary Contributions Act ("VCA") prohibits any state or local public employer from withholding voluntary political contributions from its employees' paychecks. Utah Code Ann. § 34-32-1.1. Appellees, comprising several Utah labor unions ("Unions"), assert that the VCA violates the First Amendment by restricting public employees' political speech. The district court granted their motion for summary judgment, and the state now appeals.
We agree with the district court's conclusion that the VCA is unconstitutional as applied. State restrictions on payroll systems owned and maintained by independent local governments and school boards do not fall under the nonpublic forum exception to ordinary First Amendment analysis. Because the VCA regulates political contributions, we apply exacting scrutiny and conclude that as applied to municipalities, counties, school districts, and other local public employers, § 34-32-1.1(2)(g) of the Utah Code violates the First Amendment. We AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
Five Utah labor organizations and one association of labor unions brought this suit against Utah Attorney. General Mark Shurtleff, seeking a declaration of the VCA's unconstitutionality as applied to all public employers other than the state itself. These organizations represent several thousand Utah public employees, including teachers and other school employees, county and municipal employees, and fire-fighters. Before the district court, all parties agreed on the following stipulated facts.
Many public employers in Utah facilitate voluntary contributions to labor union political funds by withholding money from an employee's paychecks at the employee's request. In 2001, the Utah legislature attempted to end this practice by enacting the VCA. Under the VCA, public employers are barred from deducting political contributions, including those to labor union political funds, when issuing paychecks. Specifically, the VCA provides that
[a] public employer may not deduct from the wages of its employees any amounts to be paid to: (a) a candidate ...; (b) a personal campaign committee ...; (c) a political action committee ...; (d) a political issues committee ...; (e) a registered political party ...; (f) a political fund ...; or (g) any entity established by a labor organization to solicit, collect, or distribute monies primarily for political purposes as defined in this chapter.
Utah Code Ann. § 34-32-1.1(2) (emphasis added).
As defined in the VCA, "political purposes" include any action intended to "directly or indirectly" influence individuals to vote in a particular manner, at "any caucus, political convention, primary, or election." § 34-32-1.1(1)(b). Covered "public employers" include both the state itself and all political subdivisions of the state, such as municipal governments, school districts, and special service districts. § 34-32-1.1(1)(d). These provisions apply prospectively only; the VCA does not invalidate existing payroll deduction agreements between public employers and employees. In a letter to school districts and other public employers, however, Attorney General Shurtleff advised that "[t]he vast majority" of existing school district contracts that he had reviewed contain provisions that would violate the VCA if renewed.
The parties agree that the VCA affects the Unions' fundraising activities. Each union sponsors funds that make expenditures for "political purposes," and many of the Unions' members make voluntary contributions to these funds. In addition, many of their members prefer to contribute using payroll deductions because they find it to be the "easiest, least expensive and most reliable way to do so." Because of the VCA, some of these members will either cease contributing entirely or reduce the amount of their contributions to the union political funds.
Most of Utah's public employers maintain and administer their own payroll systems, and thus the systems at issue are independent from those operated by the State of Utah. Setting up an individual payroll deduction carries "a marginal, although slight" expense. Prior to the VCA, however, public employers rarely, if ever, denied a union member's request to establish a payroll deduction.
On September 29, 2006, the Unions moved for summary judgment, arguing that the VCA as applied to local public employers was an unlawful, content-based restriction on political speech.1 In a succinct memorandum opinion, the district court found that the statute violated the First Amendment. Concluding that the VCA restricted speech based on its content, the district court applied strict scrutiny. Because it found that the labor political fund provision was not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest, the court declared the statute unconstitutional.
Utah now appeals, arguing that the payroll systems of local governments and school boards are nonpublic fora and therefore the district court should have applied only reasonableness review. We have jurisdiction to review the final judgment of the district court under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
In a First Amendment case, we review de novo the district court's findings of constitutional fact, conclusions of law, and grant of summary judgment. Abilene Retail # 30, Inc. v. Bd. of Comm'rs of Dickinson County, 492 F.3d 1164, 1170 (10th Cir.2007). Because the district court relied entirely on stipulated facts in ruling on the summary judgment motion, only questions of law need be resolved here.
Before turning to the First Amendment inquiry, however, we must satisfy ourselves that the payroll deductions affected by the VCA do constitute speech. We begin by observing that political spending produces speech "at the core of the First Amendment." FEC v. Nat'l Conservative. PAC, 470 U.S. 480, 493, 105 S.Ct. 1459, 84 L.Ed.2d 455 (1985). Consequently, "contribution and expenditure litpit§ operate in an area of the most fundamental First Amendment activities," and have long been reviewed by courts as burdening protected speech. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 14, 16-17, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976); see also Austin v. Mich. Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652, 657, 110 S.Ct. 1391, 108 L.Ed.2d 652 (1990). Moreover, contribution regulations need not take the form of absolute dollar limits in order to prompt First Amendment scrutiny; by increasing the effort required to engage in political speech, restrictions on the permissible methods of funding such speech implicate free expression as well. See FEC v. Mass. Citizens for Life, Inc., 479 U.S. 238, 252, 107 S.Ct. 616, 93 L.Ed.2d 539 (1986) (); Pocatello Educ. Ass'n v. Heideman, 504 F.3d 1053, 1058 (9th Cir.2007) ().
By banning a contribution method preferred by many union members, the VCA increases the difficulty of contributing to labor union political funds. It is thus unavoidable that, to some degree, the VCA burdens political speech. We therefore review the statute under the First Amendment framework for restrictions on political expression.
Utah argues that although voluntary payroll contributions qualify as protected speech, the government may impose reasonable limits on speech conducted on its own property. As the Supreme Court has recognized, "existence of a right of access to public property and the standard by which limitations upon such a right must be evaluated" depend on the nature of the property. Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 44, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983). When the government restricts speech on government property that has traditionally been held open for assembly and debate, or when it voluntarily opens a forum for expressive activity, the restrictions must satisfy strict scrutiny. Id. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948.
Conversely, if the forum in question has been reserved for nonexpressive use, the government has a much lower burden. It must simply demonstrate that speech restrictions are "reasonable in light of the purpose which the forum at issue serves." Id. at 49, 103 S.Ct. 948. These reasonable restrictions may be based on the subject matter of the speech or the identity of the speaker. Id.; see also Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Def. & Educ. Fund, 473 U.S. 788, 806, 105 S.Ct. 3439,...
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