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The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) filed an amicus brief on August 16, 2024, in support of six professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review their case and determine whether the First Amendment protects their right to dissociate themselves from representation by a union they view as antisemitic. The union is the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC).
The six professors – all but one of whom are Jewish – resigned their memberships in PSC and do not pay union dues, consistent with their legal rights. But under New York State law (N.Y. Civ. Serv. Law §§200 et seq., commonly referred to as the Taylor Law), PSC is still the exclusive spokesperson for all CUNY faculty, including these six professors – even though they oppose the union and its anti-Israel positions.
The six professors filed suit in federal district court against PSC and others, claiming that the Taylor Law violates their First Amendment speech and associational rights because it compels them to be represented in collective bargaining by the PSC whose views they abhor. The district court dismissed the professors’ First Amendment claims; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the decision. The professors recently petitioned the Supreme Court to hear their case.
Supporting their petition, the ZOA’s amicus brief provides the Supreme Court with crucial context for considering the case. The brief documents the many years of antisemitism and anti-Israelism that Jewish faculty, students and staff have been subjected to on campuses across the U.S. – a problem that has been fueled by some unions and that alarmingly surged after Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. The result is a campus environment that, for many Jews, feels hostile, intimidating and even frightening. Given this context, these professors should not also be forced to accept that a union must speak for them when they find the union’s antisemitic and anti-Israel views reprehensible and anathema to their Jewish faith and identity.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein stated: “The ZOA’s amicus brief is part of our decades-long fight against campus antisemitism and our unrelenting advocacy for the rights of Jewish faculty, students and staff to proudly assert their Jewish identity and stand with Israel. We are pleased to support these CUNY professors as they seek to protect their First Amendment freedoms.”
Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, continued: “No one should be forced to be represented by any organization whose positions are repugnant to them and to their very being. That is certainly true of these CUNY professors who should not be required to accept a spokesperson whose views clash with their identity as Jews and supporters of Israel.”
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