Knoxville, TN (February 3, 2006) – In a significant procedural victory, the Supreme Court of Tennessee has cleared the way for a circuit court trial in a case in which a Tennessee teacher is asserting that full union members have the right to withhold union dues spent on ideological activity without losing their right to vote on the collective bargaining agreements that bind them.

With free legal assistance from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, Dewey Esquinance filed suit against the Polk County Education Association (PCEA) and Tennessee Education Association (TEA) unions, affiliates of the National Education Association (NEA), in April 2003 in the Circuit Court of Polk County. After the Court of Appeals of Tennessee agreed with arguments made by Foundation attorneys that the trial court improperly dismissed the lawsuit, the state’s highest court rejected a union petition for review – clearing the way for a full investigation and trial.

As a result, Esquinance will be able to make his case in the Tennessee Circuit Court of Polk County that teachers statewide have the constitutional right to remain full union members and withhold dues spent on union political activities with which they disagree.

Union officials currently require teachers to exercise their rights under Tennessee’s Right to Work law to resign from union membership in order to stop the use of their dues money for objectionable political activities. In doing so, however, those teachers are barred by union officials from voting on ratification of collective bargaining agreements that determine the terms of their employment, control sick bank donations, and affect access to teacher training.

“This ruling shuts down teacher union officials’ desperate, last-ditch attempt to prevent a full investigation into their practice of spending teachers’ dues on politics,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation.

In September 2002, Esquinance joined the PCEA union and began paying full union dues, even though he objected to the NEA union’s political agenda. When Esquinance notified union officials that he wanted to remain a full union member but only pay for union expenses related to collective bargaining, union officials informed him that his union membership was terminated and that there was no appeals process.

Like many educators, Esquinance objects to numerous aspects of the union’s agenda for religious and political reasons, including the NEA’s stances promoting abortion, gun control, and special rights for homosexuals. Every year, the NEA and its affiliates spend tens of millions of dollars in compulsory dues in support of political views and candidates that many teachers find objectionable.

Esquinance is challenging union membership dues based on the rights established by the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. Under Abood and subsequent rulings, employees have a constitutional right to refuse to pay for union non-collective bargaining activities, such as politics.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in more than 250 cases nationwide per year.