NYC legal aid union defeats lawsuit by Jewish lawyers over Israel criticisms
Arnold Levine and Allen Popper alleged in their lawsuit that their constitutional rights were violated by being required to pay dues to support advocacy they opposed by state-supported organizations. But U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel said that the union and Legal Aid Society are private entities that are not subject to the attorneys' civil rights claims.
The U.S. Supreme Court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "have repeatedly concluded that public defenders, legal aid societies, and other legal-services providers that rely on public funding do not perform traditional public functions that make them state actors for section 1983 purposes," Castel said in his ruling.
Castel also dismissed the lawyers' claims against New York City, finding that the city played no role in hiring Levine and Popper or in the drafting of a December 2023 resolution by the local chapter of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys that criticized Israeli "apartheid" and called for a ceasefire.
"We are pleased that in dismissing the complaint, the court agreed with our position that it had no merit," said Twyla Carter, the attorney-in-chief and chief executive officer at the Legal Aid Society.
Jeffrey Schwab of the conservative Liberty Justice Center, which represented Levine and Popper, said they plan to appeal.
"Our clients who serve New York City as public defenders should not be forced to join or pay a union — especially one that advocates for points of view they find deeply offensive — as a condition of their job," Schwab said in a statement.
Spokespersons for the ALAA and the New York City Law Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ALAA is an affiliate of the United Auto Workers union that represents about 2,700 lawyers working for New York-area groups, including The Legal Aid Society, that represent indigent defendants. New York City contracts with Legal Aid and other groups for those services.
In the lawsuit, Levine said he had sought to stop paying dues to the union because of what he perceived as antisemitism by its leadership. ALAA informed Levine that while he could opt out of union membership, he was required to pay so-called agency fees to fund collective bargaining.
The ALAA's resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza prompted another lawsuit brought by other union members who said they were retaliated against for opposing it. Those lawyers, who work at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, slammed the resolution as being "objectively antisemitic."
That lawsuit, filed by Ilana Kopmar, Diane Clarke and Isaac Altman, is still pending in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.
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