Court Opinion

ID: 9431513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:28.456412+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.756326
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
concurring in the judgment.
Finnegan v. Leu, 456 U. S. 431, 436-437 (1982), observed that “[i]t is readily apparent, both from the language of these provisions and from the legislative history of Title I, that it was rank-and-file union members — not union officers or employees, as such — whom Congress sought to protect” (footnote omitted). If that is so and if a case involves speech in the capacity of an officer, it should make no difference that the officer is elected rather than appointed. But in Finnegan, it was asserted that the officer was removed because of his campaign activities, as a member, in a union election, which was speech protected by Title I. In response, the Court said that under the union constitution the newly elected president had power to appoint and remove officers and that he was entitled to start out with officers in whom he had confidence. This was sufficient to dispose of the officers’ claim under Title I.
In the case before us,, the speech for which respondent was removed was also speech in the capacity of a member. The duties of a union business agent are defined in the union constitution. Those duties relate primarily to collective bargaining and administering the collective-bargaining contract. They do not seem to include supporting the union president’s proposal to increase union dues; and if they did, I am not so *360sure that respondent would have spoken out against the dues increase at all.
In this case, unlike Finnegan, respondent was not discharged by an incoming elected president with power to appoint his own staff, but by a trustee whose power to dismiss and appoint officers, for all that is shown here, went no further than the Local’s president to discharge for cause, i. e., for incompetence or other behavior disqualifying them for the tasks they were expected to perform as officers. Respondent’s speech opposing the dues increase was the speech of a member about a matter the members were to resolve, and there is no countervailing interest rooted in union democracy that suffices -to override that protection.
Thus, I doubt that resolution of'cases like this turns on whether an officer is elected or appointed. Rather its inquiry is whether an officer speaks as a member or as an officer in discharge of his assigned duties. If the former, he is protected by Title I. If the latter, the issue becomes whether other considerations deprive the officer/member of the .protections of that Title.