In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME, People For the American Way President Michael Keegan issued the following statement:

“Today’s decision may be the clearest example we’ve seen since Citizens United of how radically the Supreme Court is twisting the law in order to push a dangerous and destructive ideological agenda. As in Citizens United, five members of the Supreme Court tossed aside decades of precedent by transforming the First Amendment from a shield to protect citizens from government overreach into a sword they’ve used to destroy laws they simply don’t like. This decision is a political attack on working people and on labor unions dressed up in legal language.

“It will take years to repair the damage being done by the narrow right-wing majority sitting on the Supreme Court. And the only way we can do that is through the ballot box. Republicans have spent years working to force narrow-minded elitists onto the federal bench. Voters who care about their rights on the job—as well as their right to marry the person they love, access the healthcare they need, drink clean water and be in charge of their own democracy—need to show up at the polls in November and use their ballots to send a message that the Supreme Court can’t ignore.”

People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

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