Seven Jewish teachers challenge forced representation by anti-Semitic union.

Los Angeles, CA  — The Freedom Foundation filed a reply brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of seven Jewish Los Angeles public school teachers challenging a California law under which they have no choice in being represented by a union with a well-documented record of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conduct.
 
The court will now schedule oral argument.
     
As part of its exclusive representation agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the state of California requires United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) to represent every member of the bargaining unit — including those like the complainants, who have voluntarily opted out of union membership and dues.
 
All seven have exercised their First Amendment rights to decline union membership and dues. Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, the teachers believe the right to opt out also includes the right not to be spoken for by an organization that characterizes Israel as an “apartheid, colonizing regime.”
 
The suit was originally filed by four plaintiffs on Oct. 7, 2024 — the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel — and later amended to include three more. 
      
UTLA’s response brief did not dispute that its exclusive representation burdens the teachers’ sincere religious beliefs. Instead, the union argued the arrangement passes constitutional muster anyway. 
 
The Freedom Foundation’s reply asserts that neither the 9th Circuit nor the Supreme Court has ever upheld exclusive representation that forces workers to choose between their faith and their jobs.
     
“UTLA’s position boils down to this: Accept our representation or give up your career,” said Shella Alcabes, Freedom Foundation litigation counsel. “That’s not a choice the Constitution permits the government to impose. These teachers opted out of this union for good reason, and no court has ever said the First Amendment allows what California is doing here.”
           
Among the actions the plaintiffs attribute to UTLA: 

• spending $700,000 to elect a school board candidate who promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories;
• funding members’ attendance at anti-Jewish rallies;
• endorsing a “Teach Palestine” curriculum that misrepresents Jewish history; and,
• passing resolutions supporting the BDS campaign against Israel.
         

An oral argument date has not been set.