Unequal Treatment? The Speech and Association Rights of Employees: Implications of Knox and Harris

ACS is pleased to distribute an Issue Brief by University of California, Irvine School of Law scholars Catherine Fisk, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, and Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, entitled “Unequal Treatment? The Speech and Association Rights of Employees: Implications of Knox and Harris.” In the Issue Brief, Fisk and Chemerinsky engage in a thorough analysis of two recent Supreme Court cases, Knox v. SEIU, Local 1000 and Harris v. Quinn as well as other seminal First Amendment cases and explore the various contradictions and inconsistencies in applied standards of associational speech among unionized workers, corporations and other entities.  Fisk and Chemerinsky conclude by explaining, “[t]he desire of employees to join together in a common cause…to improve their working conditions, and to express their vision for a better political economy is foundational to the freedom of association protected by the First Amendment.”