Columbus, OH – Thirty-nine renowned public policy organizations have filed amicus briefs with the United States Supreme Court in support of The Buckeye Institute’s case, Thompson v. Marietta Education Association (MEA), which calls for an immediate end to laws that force public-sector employees to accept a union’s exclusive representation.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Fairness Center, Freedom Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Liberty Justice Center, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Pacific Legal Foundation, and a coalition of 30 leading policy organizations all submitted amicus briefs in support of Jade Thompson and are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her case and recognize that compelled exclusive representation violates the First Amendment.

“The sheer number of groups asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear this case demonstrates the depth and breadth of the constitutional problem of forced exclusive representation, which impacts not only Mrs. Thompson of course, but also workers in more than 40 states across the country,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and one of Mrs. Thompson’s attorneys. “As noted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Ohio’s compelled union-representation law directly conflicts with the principles the Supreme Court has announced in recent opinions.” Alt continued, “We hope the Supreme Court will take this important opportunity to correct the unresolved error permitting compulsory exclusive representation, and—in so doing—vindicate the First Amendment rights of workers like Mrs. Thompson.”

“These laws forcing exclusive representation are simply incompatible with the First Amendment, and Mrs. Thompson is asking the U.S. Supreme Court for nothing more than for her rights to be protected—something every American deserves,” said Andrew M. Grossman, a partner at BakerHostetler LLP in Washington, D.C., and counsel of record in Thompson v. MEA.

The multi-organization brief was led by Alaska Policy Forum and included co-amici Americans for Fair Treatment, Association of American Educators, Center of the American Experiment, Citizen Action Defense Fund, Commonwealth Foundation, Empire Center for Public Policy, Inc., Georgia Center for Opportunity, Illinois Policy Institute, Independence Institute, James Madison Institute, John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, John Locke Foundation, Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, Landmark Legal Foundation, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Maine Policy Institute, Maryland Public Policy Institute, Nevada Policy Research Institute, Pacific Research Institute, Pelican Institute for Public Policy, Protect the First, Inc., Rio Grande Foundation, Roughrider Policy Center, Show-Me Institute, Southeastern Legal Foundation, Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, Virginia Institute for Public Policy, Washington Policy Center, and Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Mrs. Thompson’s case was initially filed on June 27, 2018, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The case was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on February 18, 2020. On January 22, 2021, The Buckeye Institute filed its petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Buckeye Institute was the first organization in the country to file lawsuits calling on courts to end compelled exclusive representation following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME. In addition to Mrs. Thompson, Buckeye is also separately representing Professor Kathy Uradnik of Minnesota in Uradnik v. IFO in a similar case.

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