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Supreme Court denies case from CUNY faculty alleging antisemitic union

“Our clients should be proud of what they accomplished in the face of entrenched opposition,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs told JNS.

City University of New York
Academic core building of York College in the City University of New York (CUNY) system, in Queens, N.Y. Credit: Tdorante10 via Wikimedia Commons.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case from six City University of New York professors who want to sever ties with the public school’s faculty union, which they say is antisemitic.

The high court listed “Goldstein, Avraham, et al. v. Professional Congress, et al.” on its slate of denied cases on Jan. 13.

The professors, who were not members of the union, argued that, under state law, they were required to accept the representation of the Professional Staff Congress, a 30,000-member union, despite its anti-Israel statements.

Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel for the Fairness Center, which represented the six professors, told JNS that “our clients should be proud of what they accomplished in the face of entrenched opposition.”

“Over three years of litigation, their successes included winning refunds of dues money that they alleged the union improperly took from them, causing a federal judge to limit how broadly New York’s Taylor Law could be interpreted and repeatedly exposing in the media the union’s actions that they consider to be anti-Israel and antisemitic,” McGrath said. “I know they will continue to stand up for their rights.”

Izzy Salant is a Los Angeles-based journalist and social media/digital marketing manager at JNS.
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