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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell has overturned the state law that prohibited state employees, including teachers, from having payroll deductions that went toward political purposes -- such as union political action committees.
In her ruling published Wednesday, Campbell found that the Voluntary Contributions Act passed in 2001 served no compelling state interest and violated government employees' freedom of speech.
"Today's ruling shows that the First Amendment is alive and well," said Vik Arnold, government relations and political action director of the Utah Education Association, one of six labor organizations that challenged the law.
House Speaker Greg Curtis blasted the ruling as "judicial activism" and said it should be appealed.
"We don't believe the government should be in the business of collecting political action money," Curtis said.
The state has 30 days to decide if it will appeal Campbell's decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Roberts said the office will have to confer with leaders of the Legislature before deciding whether to appeal.
At the time the bill was being considered, legislative attorneys gave it a 60 percent chance of being upheld in court.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff first told legislators that he had a "gut feeling" the legislation was unconstitutional. After private discussions with legislative leaders, Shurtleff said the law would be "100 percent defensible."
State attorneys argued payroll systems are state property, and therefore, not subject to the "strict scrutiny" required in free speech cases.
Campbell said because the law is "content-based," meaning a law that restricts speech on specific subjects, it is subject to strict scrutiny.
At the time the bill was passed, 95 percent of UEA's 18,000 members contributed nearly $640,000 to the union's political action committee through payroll deductions. When an injunction lapsed and the law took effect, the number of contributors was cut in half. Last year, that fund balance totaled less than $300,000.
"It hurt," said Arnold. "It didn't silence us."
Legislators backing the measure denied it was an attempt to cut into public employee union fundraising.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
