Bierman v. Dayton

Opinion

 [*572]  COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

In 2013, Minnesota [**2]  enacted a statute that extended the state's Public Employment Labor Relations Act ("PELRA") to persons who provide in-home care to disabled Medicaid recipients. See Individual Providers of Direct Support Services Representation Act, ch. 128, art. 2, 2013 Minn. Laws 2173 (codified as amended at Minn. Stat. §§ 179A.54, 256B.0711). PELRA authorizes covered employees to organize and to designate by majority vote an exclusive representative to negotiate employment terms with the state. Minn. Stat. § 179A.06, subdiv. 2.

A group of parents who provide homecare services to their disabled children sued several state officials and a union, alleging that the 2013 Act violates the homecare providers' freedom of association under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. They complain that the Act unconstitutionally compels them to associate with the exclusive negotiating representative. The district court,³ relying on Minnesota State Board for Community Colleges v. Knight, 465 U.S. 271, 104 S. Ct. 1058, 79 L. Ed. 2d 299 (1984), determined that the 2013 Act does not infringe on the providers' First Amendment rights. We agree with the application of Knight, and therefore affirm the judgment for the defendants.

] PELRA allows public employees to organize by selecting an exclusive representative to "meet and confer" and "meet and negotiate" with the State regarding terms and conditions of employment. Minn. Stat. §§ 179A.06, 179A.07. If public [**3]  employees select a representative, then the state employer must confer and negotiate exclusively with the representative union. Id. § 179A.07, subdivs. 2-3. Employees, however, need not join the union, id. § 179A.06, subdiv. 2, and they remain free to communicate with the State independent of the exclusive representative, so long as their activity "is not designed to and does not interfere with the full faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment or circumvent the rights of the exclusive representative." Id. § 179A.06, subdiv. 1.

In 2013, ] Minnesota extended PELRA to apply to those who provide in-home care to Medicaid recipients. Ch. 128, art. 2, 2013 Minn. Laws at 2173-78. Under the 2013 Act, Minnesota considers homecare providers to be public employees solely for purposes of PELRA. Minn. Stat. § 179A.54, subdiv. 2. The Act specifies, however, that no agreement reached between the State and the exclusive representative may interfere with certain rights of the Medicaid recipients—namely, "to select, hire, direct, supervise, and terminate the employment of their individual providers; to manage an individual service budget regarding the amounts and types of authorized goods or  [*573]  services received; or to receive direct support services from individual providers not referred to them through [**4]  a state registry." Id. § 179A.54, subdiv. 4.

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