AFL-CIO Brands Its Own Member Union’s Position “Troubling and Extreme”:

The AFL-CIO faults California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown’s willingness to protect offensive speech as being “troubling and extreme“:

[I]n Aguilar v. Avis Rent-a-Car, 980 P.2d 846 (1999), Brown authored a dissenting opinion that would have struck down, on First Amendment grounds, an injunction that instructed a supervisor not to use racial epithets against Latino employees. The injunction was issued by a trial court judge after the employer was found liable by a jury for maintaining a discriminatory hostile work environment for Latino employees.

On the other hand, the National Writers Union — a member union of the AFL-CIO — proudly filed an amicus brief urging the same result that Justice Brown endorsed. Now of course the AFL-CIO need not agree with everything its member unions say. But if a member union takes a particular pro-free-speech view, it does seem odd that the AFL-CIO — which has long benefited from free speech protections, and has long fought for broadening such protections — would label that view “troubling and extreme.”

Thanks to Hans Bader for pointing this out.