Public Defenders Shouldn’t Be Forced to Support a Union’s Anti-Israeli Speech
Two New York City lawyers object to having to support speech that they believe attacks their very identity and existence.
Two New York City lawyers object to having to support speech that they believe attacks their very identity and existence.
N o one should be forced to pay money to an organization that advocates for points of view that they find deeply offensive. For example, a Jewish person shouldn’t be forced to pay for an organization that advocates ideas that he or she considers antisemitic. That’s the situation that Arnold Levine and Allen Popper, longtime public defenders in New York City, find themselves in. Arnold and Allen have both long represented criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own defense attorneys, a job that is extremely difficult and often thankless, involves long hours, and can be emotionally and psychologically draining.
To do their jobs, Arnold and Allen have to pay money to a union. Worse, that union has adopted several resolutions that Arnold and Allen, who are Jewish, believe are antisemitic, support terrorists, and promote the destruction of Israel. The First Amendment prohibits the government from compelling a person to subsidize other people’s political speech — including a union’s speech. So how do Arnold and Allen find themselves in this situation?
The Constitution requires the government to provide defense counsel to criminal defendants who can’t afford their own lawyers. Typically, governments have done so by directly employing people to serve as public defenders. But that’s not how New York City does it. Instead, it has a contract with the Legal Aid Society, a not-for-profit organization, which employs attorneys such as Arnold and Allen, whose entire job is to provide criminal defense to the indigent, paid entirely from funds that come from the government.
The Legal Aid Society has a collective bargaining agreement with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), UAW Local 2325, which requires all of its attorneys, including Arnold and Allen, to pay dues or the equivalent amount to ALAA.
ALAA has adopted resolutions attacking Israel. On July 25, 2022, it passed a resolution “in support of Palestinian liberation from Israeli apartheid” that called on “UAW International to divest itself from any and all Israel bonds.” Then on December 19, 2023, ALAA passed a resolution stating that “Israel has, since the violent tragedy on October 7, 2023, increasingly espoused genocidal rhetoric against all Palestinians,” accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing, and genocide,” and calling “for an end to Israeli apartheid and the occupation and blockade of Palestinian land, sea, and air by Israeli military forces.”
Many, including Arnold and Allen, believe these resolutions are antisemitic. Worse, it’s been reported that in internal messages at the Legal Aid Society, some ALAA members in the wake of the October 7 attacks have themselves verbally attacked colleagues who support Israel’s right to exist, calling them “fascist,” “deranged,” and “mentally disturbed.” Understandably, Arnold and Allen don’t want their hard-earned money going to support ALAA’s speech that they find deeply offensive and hateful.
The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment prohibits a government from directly compelling a worker to pay money to a union. In Janus v. AFSCME, the Court held that the state could not force its employees to join or pay money to a union as a condition of their employment. And, in Harris v. Quinn, it held that a state could not force personal-home-care workers — who are privately employed but receive money from the state through a Medicaid program to provide aid to individuals needing care — to pay money to a union.
That means that New York City cannot directly compel public defenders, like Arnold and Allen, to pay money to a union. And the city also shouldn’t be allowed to do that indirectly by paying its public defenders through a unionized nonprofit. Either way, individuals are forced to pay a union, and support its speech, as the price of public service.
That’s why Arnold and Allen, with the help of the Liberty Justice Center, filed a federal lawsuit alleging that forcing them to pay the ALAA as a condition of their employment violates their First Amendment rights. You shouldn’t have to pay money to a union just to be a public defender in New York City — especially when that means supporting speech that you feel attacks your very identity and existence.