Supreme Court finds picketing ban goes too far

By:  Scott Lauck  scott.lauck@molawyersmedia.com April 8, 2020

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled March 31 the state cannot enforce a blanket ban on picketing by public employees. But a larger case about the rights of public-sector unions is headed its way. In a unanimous opinion, the court said a 2018 law that requires every labor agreement for public-sector unions to “expressly prohibit all strikes and picketing of any kind” was unconstitutionally broad.

“Public employees have a right to exercise their freedom of speech about matters of public concern when that speech does not impede the efficiency of the public services the state performs through its employees,” Judge Zel M. Fischer wrote for the Supreme Court.

The picketing challenge was brought by Rebecca Karney and Johnny Miller, two 911 dispatchers in Jackson County who are part of Communication Workers of America Local 6360. They  argued the law violated their rights to free speech because it appeared to bar them from picketing even over matters of public concern, such as the dispatchers’ wages.

A Jackson County judge enjoined the law in December 2018. The Supreme Court agreed.

“The circuit court’s judgment is affirmed to the extent it enjoins the state from prohibiting unobtrusive picketing about matters of public concern in negotiations for a new labor agreement with the CWA Local 6360,” Fischer wrote.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office had urged the court to adopt a narrow reading of the statute by holding that the picketing ban was confined to labor protests during a strike. Fischer said that didn’t match the law’s plain language.

“The statute plainly requires all public labor agreements to prohibit ‘picketing of any kind,’ he wrote. By striking the words “picketing of any kind,” the rest of that particular statute, section 105.585, could be enforced. The statute also contains an express prohibition against strikes by public employees and pickets about personnel matters, which state and federal courts have held do not receive free-speech protection.

Joshua Sanders of Boyd Kenter Thomas & Parrish in Independence, an attorney for the dispatchers, said the ruling was “spot on.” Though public employees can’t picket over purely internal complaints, “anything that the public could care about can’t be prohibited,” he said.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office didn’t respond to an email request for comment.

The picketing restriction was a part of a larger public-sector union bill, House Bill 1413, passed in 2018. Shortly after the picketing case was heard in January, a St. Louis County judge granted summary judgment to the Missouri National Education Association, holding that HB 1413 was void in its entirety.

The state now has appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court. No briefing schedule or arguments have been set. Loretta K. Haggard of Schuchat, Cook & Werner, an attorney for the MNEA plaintiffs, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The picketing case is  Karney et al. v. Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, SC97833. The HB 1413 case is  Missouri National Education Association v. Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, SC98412.