Professors Seek Freedom from ‘Anti-Semitic’ Union’s Representation

Six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Zionist Jews, were outraged when their faculty union issued a resolution they viewed as “anti-Israel” and “anti-Semitic.” Though the professors are no longer union members, New York’s Taylor Law forces them to still accept the union’s representation. The professors’ lawsuit, Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress / CUNY, seeks to vindicate their First Amendment rights and free them from the “exclusive representation” of a union they believe hates them.

Professor Flees Soviet Anti-Semitism

Professor Avraham Goldstein is a tenured assistant professor of mathematics at CUNY. An Orthodox, Zionist Jew and ordained rabbi, Avraham was born in the Soviet Union, and his family settled in Israel after fleeing Soviet anti-Semitism. He later immigrated to New York to pursue his academic career and joined the faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress / CUNY (PSC).

CUNY Union Issues ‘Anti-Semitic’ Statement

In 2021, the PSC issued a resolution that encouraged support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and referred to Israel as an “apartheid” state. Avraham and his fellow plaintiffs viewed the union’s action as “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israel,” and five of them joined hundreds of others in resigning their PSC memberships in protest.

Janus Freed Nonmembers from Union Payments, not Representation

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME held that nonmember public employees could not be forced to pay fees to a union. The ruling explicitly stated that doing so would violate their First Amendment rights. But the Janus decision did not address the reality Avraham and his five co-plaintiffs now faced: As nonmembers, they nonetheless must accept the “exclusive representation” of a union they believe is anti-Semitic. They cannot choose other representation or represent themselves with their employer.

Goldstein v. psc / Cuny Seeks to End union’s ‘Exclusive Representation’

In 2022, the Fairness Center, along with the National Right to Work Foundation, filed a federal lawsuit on the professors’ behalf. Their goal was to free themselves from the PSC’s unwanted representation. Crucially, the lawsuit argues that “exclusive representation” violates the professors’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and association by forcing them to accept the representation of a union that they believe hates them.

In 2023, the professors appealed to the Second Circuit. There, they challenged the state’s power to force them to be represented and spoken for by the PSC, despite its rhetoric they disagree with and view as anti-Semitic. In the spring of 2024, following the lower courts, the Second Circuit upheld the decision to uphold the state’s power. The professors are now seeking an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

SCOTUS Could affirm Professors’ constitutional rights

If the Court accepts Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress / CUNY and rules in the professors’ favor, employees who disagree with their public-sector union would have their rights recognized in a fundamentally new way. The professors and other public employees could win the freedom to end unwanted union representation, and public-sector unions could lose the right to force employees to accept their representation.

“New York law shouldn’t provide cover for unions at the cost of individual freedom. Nor should it countenance forcing Jews to associate with a union that doesn’t want them around.” –Avraham Goldstein

This case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. It is currently appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Documents

• Complaint – January 12, 2022
• News Release – January 13, 2022
• Appellant’s Brief to Second Circuit – June 2, 2023
• Appellant’s Reply Brief – August 25, 2023
• Second Circuit Court of Appeals Decision – March 18, 2024
• News Release – March 18, 2024
• Petition for En-Banc Rehearing – April 1, 2024
• U.S. Supreme Court Petition for Writ of Certiorari – July 19, 2024
• News Release – July 22, 2024
• Brief in Opposition for PSC – December 6, 2024

October 6, 2024: “A group of Jewish professors is suing their openly Marxist teachers union, arguing that forced representation by a union actively engaged in anti-Semitism violates their First Amendment rights.”

September 24, 2024: “Neither my EEOC complaint, nor my lawsuits against CUNY and its union, the latter of which is now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, is mentioned a single time in the Hochul-commissioned report — and that’s just the start of its glaring omissions.”

August 14, 2024: “But Shapiro is the kind of leader who ‘lean[s]’ on his ‘faith’ and doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer – especially when he knows he’s in the right. How do I know? When he was just six, he launched a years-long campaign that helped my family escape Soviet antisemitism.”

March 22, 2024: “Six City University of New York professors will appeal to the Supreme Court a recent decision mandating that they must be represented by the Professional Staff Congress. The professors, who had resigned from the PSC after alleging that the union was inciting anti-Semitic sentiment, claim that their compulsory inclusion in the PSC violates their First Amendment protections concerning freedom of association.”

March 19,2024: “Jewish professors at the City University of New York will continue to be represented by a union that they say advocates for Jew-hatred, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City ruled on Monday.”

March 18, 2024: “These professors are being forced to associate with a union that they believe hates them. It’s hard to imagine a clearer illustration of the harm caused by exclusive representation.”

January 22, 2024: “The Fairness Center, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing the professors, says that with amendments to the Taylor Law, ‘unions like the PSC are free to treat nonmembers, like these professors, as second-class employees, offering them inferior services compared to members.’”

July 21, 2023: “Unless the courts intervene, PSC officials will remain free to alienate Jews, knowing their only escape from the union is to quit their jobs. Not only that, but public employees across the country who object to their unions’ divisive actions or political stances would similarly remain trapped in unwanted representation.”

June 7, 2023: “[T]he professors are appealing a US District Court’s dismissal of their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a New York State Law—the ‘Taylor Law’— that grants PSC the right to continue representing the professors in collective bargaining even though they are no longer members of it.”

December 14, 2022: “[T]he same people who referred to Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state are negotiating the salary and working conditions of Jewish professors at CUNY. Absurd? I thought so, too, and several professors joined me in suing the union, CUNY, and the state of New York to escape the union for good.”

September 19, 2022: “The charge that palpable antisemitism is an emerging fact of life in the Big Apple – locus of the world’s highest concentration of Jews outside of Israel – might strike many as hyperbole or even paranoia. But as a recent Tablet article convincingly declares, ‘It’s Open Season on Jews in New York City.’”

January 20, 2022:“[U]nion officials—who speak for me under state law—issued a resolution I, and many of my colleagues, view as anti-Semitic. Now I have a choice: Disrupt my life and damage my career again or rely on the constitutional protections that set America apart from most other countries on earth. I’m done running.”