Columbus, OH – After The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal asking the Ohio Supreme Court to hear Sheldon v. Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE), several nationally renowned organizations filed an amicus brief urging the court to take the case and put an end to illegal union wage theft.

“The Buckeye Institute is grateful for the support of such a stellar lineup as these nationally renowned groups,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Mr. Sheldon. “This case will affect the rights of every public employee who is a member of a union, and reaffirm the Ohio Constitution’s guarantee that ‘All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his land, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law…”

In their amicus brief in support of The Buckeye Institute’s client Matthew Sheldon, Freedom Foundation, Liberty Justice Center, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation argue that government unions unlawfully block workers’ efforts to leave the union and that Ohio’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act does not strip courts of their jurisdiction over workers’ private contractual disputes with unions. 

While the government union may claim that Mr. Sheldon signed a contract authorizing the union to keep deducting membership dues from his paychecks even after he was no longer a member of the union, Ohio’s law simply does not allow this unethical practice. It is time for the court to tell the union and the government that their practice is illegal and that they must stop taking money from workers’ paychecks after they leave the union.

To learn more about Mr. Sheldon’s case and to stay up-to-date on Sheldon v. OAPSE, visit: BuckeyeInstitute.org/SheldonvOAPSE.

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