California educator among 8 teachers suing feds over mandatory union dues

The L.A. Daily News reports:

Eight California teachers filed a federal lawsuit Monday against their school districts and the California Teachers Association, challenging mandatory union membership and the union dues that come with it.

“Our basic goal is to regain our power, our speech and our right to not associate with an organization that harms us and our students,” said Ryan Yohn, 38, lead plaintiff and an eighth-grade American history teacher at Stacey Middle School in the Westminster School District.

The Center for Individual Rights, a nonprofit libertarian law firm, filed the lawsuit in federal court Monday in Los Angeles on behalf of Yohn and other teachers, including Allen Osborn with the Riverside Unified School District, against various school district superintendents and unions.

The suit aims to resurrect issues raised in an earlier case that ended last year with a 4-4 deadlock before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s really the same case with different plaintiffs,” said Terence Pell, the center’s president.

Last March, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court deadlocked on a lawsuit filed by the center and lead plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher with the Savanna School District in Buena Park.

The struggle against coerced labor dues.