Washington, D.C. - In a key victory against compulsory unionism abuse, Foundation attorneys persuaded the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn a lower court decision that thwarted employee challenges to compulsory union dues requirements.

After granting the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Foundation attorneys, the High Court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and ordered it to reconsider its anti-employee ruling in Prescott v. County of El Dorado.

The Supreme Court decided to allow employees to challenge a monopoly bargaining agreement provision that encourages public employers to carry out the illegal demands of union officials to seize union dues for politics.

Employers do union's dirty work

"This case attacks the notion that union officials should be allowed to bribe employers to do their dirty work by offering to reimburse all costs that arise out of violating employees' First Amendment rights," said Foundation Vice President Stefan Gleason. "If we ultimately prevail on this issue - and we believe we will - we will have dealt a powerful blow to union dues extortion schemes."

Foundation attorneys first filed suit in U.S. District Court on behalf of Steven Prescott in 1995 after officials from the El Dorado County Employees Association labor union began seizing union forced dues from his paycheck. The suit explained that the "indemnification clause" within the collective bargaining agreement between the union and El Dorado County directly encouraged county officials to carry out the illegal union demands to seize dues for politics.

Foundation attorneys have already prevailed on several important issues in the case, including a ruling requiring union officials to provide independently audited disclosure to employees before seizing any union dues from their paychecks.