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abridge protected rights of association in authorizing union-shop agreements between interstate railroads and unions of their employees conditioning the employees' continued employment on payment of union dues, initiation fees and assessments. . . . In rejecting Hanson's claim of abridgment of his rights of freedom of association, we said, 'On the present record, there is no more an infringement or impairment of First Amendment rights than there would be in the case of a lawyer who by state law is required to be a member of an integrated bar.' 351 U. S., at 238. Both in purport and in practice the bulk of State Bar activities serve the function, or at least So Wisconsin might reasonably believe, of elevating the educational and ethical standards of the Bar to the end of improving the quality of the legal service available to the people of the State, without any reference to the political process. It cannot be denied that this is a legitimate end of state policy. We think that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, in order to further the State's legitimate interests in raising the quality of professional services, may constitutionally require that the costs of improving the profession in this fashion should be shared by the subjects and beneficiaries of the regulatory program, the lawyers, even though the organization created to attain the objective also engages in some legislative activity. Given the character of the integrated bar shown on this record, in the light of the limitation of the membership requirement to the compulsory payment of reasonable annual dues, we are unable to find any impingement upon protected rights of association." Lathrop, 367 U. S., at 842-843 (plurality opinion) (footnote omitted). Justice Harlan, joined by Justice Frankfurter, similarly concluded that "[t]he Hanson case . . . decided by a unanimous Court, surely lays at rest all doubt that a State may constitutionally condition the right to practice law upon membership in an integrated bar association, a condition fully as justified

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by state needs as the union shop is by federal needs." Id., at 849 (opinion concurring in judgment).

The Lathrop plurality emphasized, however, the limited scope of the question it was deciding: “[Lathrop's] compulsory enrollment imposes only the duty to pay dues. . . . We therefore are confronted, as we were in [Hanson], only with a question of compelled financial support of group activities, not with involuntary membership in any other aspect." Id., at 827-828 (footnote omitted). Indeed, the plurality expressly reserved judgment on Lathrop's additional claim that his free speech rights were violated by the Wisconsin Bar's use of his mandatory dues to support objectionable political activities, believing that the record was not sufficiently developed to address this particular claim. Petitioners here

present this very claim for decision, contending that the use of their compulsory dues to finance political and ideological activities of the State Bar with which they disagree violates their rights of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.

In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U. S. 209 (1977), the Court confronted the issue whether, consistent with the First Amendment, agency-shop dues of nonunion public employees could be used to support political and ideological causes of the union which were unrelated to collectivebargaining activities. We held that while the Constitution did not prohibit a union from spending "funds for the expression of political views. . . or toward the advancement of other ideological causes not germane to its duties as collectivebargaining representative," the Constitution did require that such expenditures be "financed from charges, dues, or assessments paid by employees who [did] not object to advancing those ideas and who [were] not coerced into doing so against their will by the threat of loss of governmental employment." Id., at 235-236. The Court noted that just as

3 Justice Harlan would have reached this claim and decided that it lacked merit. See Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U. S., at 848-865.

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prohibitions on making contributions to organizations for political purposes implicate fundamental First Amendment concerns, see Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1 (1976), "compelled . . contributions for political purposes works no less an infringement of . . . constitutional rights." Abood, supra, at 234. The Court acknowledged Thomas Jefferson's view that "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical."" 431 U. S., at 234-235, n. 31 (quoting I. Brant, James Madison: The Nationalist 354 (1948)). While the decision in Abood was also predicated on the grounds that a public employee could not be compelled to relinquish First Amendment rights as a condition of public employment, see 431 U. S., at 234-236, in the later case of Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U. S. 435 (1984), the Court made it clear that the principles of Abood apply equally to employees in the private sector. See 466 U. S., at 455–457.

Although several federal and state courts have applied the Abood analysis in the context of First Amendment challenges to integrated bar associations, see 47 Cal. 3d, at 1166, 767 P. 2d, at 1028 (collecting cases), the California Supreme Court in this case held that respondent's status as a regulated state agency exempted it from any constitutional constraints on the use of its dues. "If the bar is considered a governmental agency, then the distinction between revenue derived from mandatory dues and revenue from other sources is immaterial. A governmental agency may use unrestricted revenue, whether derived from taxes, dues, fees, tolls, tuition, donation, or other sources, for any purposes within its authority." Id., at 1167, 767 P. 2d, at 1029. Respondent also urges this position, invoking the so-called "government speech" doctrine: "The government must take substantive positions and decide disputed issues to govern. . . . So long as it bases its actions on legitimate goals, government may speak despite citizen disagreement with the content of its message, for government is not required to be content-neutral." Brief for

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Respondents 16. See also Abood, supra, at 259, n. 13 (Powell, J., concurring in judgment) (“[T]he reason for permitting the government to compel the payment of taxes and to spend money on controversial projects is that the government is representative of the people").

Of course the Supreme Court of California is the final authority on the "governmental" status of the State Bar of California for purposes of state law. But its determination that respondent is a "government agency," and therefore entitled to the treatment accorded a governor, a mayor, or a state tax commission, for instance, is not binding on us when such a determination is essential to the decision of a federal question. The State Bar of California is a good deal different from most other entities that would be regarded in common parlance as "governmental agencies." Its principal funding comes, not from appropriations made to it by the legislature, but from dues levied on its members by the board of governors.4 Only lawyers admitted to practice in the State of California are members of the State Bar, and all 122,000 lawyers admitted to practice in the State must be members. Respondent undoubtedly performs important and valuable services for the State by way of governance of the profession, but those services are essentially advisory in nature. The State Bar does not admit anyone to the practice of law, it does not finally disbar or suspend anyone, and it does not ultimately establish ethical codes of conduct. All of those functions are reserved by California law to the State Supreme Court. See Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code Ann. § 6064 (West 1974) (admissions); § 6076 (rules of professional conduct); Cal. Bus.

+ In 1982, the year the complaint in this action was filed, approximately 85% of the State Bar's general funding came from membership dues with the balance made up of fees charged for various bar activities. The State Bar's general funds support the bulk of its activities with the exception of the State Bar's applicant admission functions and other miscellaneous activity. The State Bar's admission functions are not funded from general revenues but rather from fees charged to applicants taking the bar examination. App. 76–77.

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& Prof. Code Ann. §6100 (West Supp. 1990) (disbarment or suspension).

There is, by contrast, a substantial analogy between the relationship of the State Bar and its members, on the one hand, and the relationship of employee unions and their members, on the other. The reason behind the legislative enactment of “agency-shop" laws is to prevent "free riders”—those who receive the benefit of union negotiation with their employers, but who do not choose to join the union and pay dues-from avoiding their fair share of the cost of a process from which they benefit. The members of the State Bar concededly do not benefit as directly from its activities as do employees from union negotiations with management, but the position of the organized bars has generally been that they prefer a large measure of self-regulation to regulation conducted by a government body which has little or no connection with the profession. The plan established by California for the regulation of the profession is for recommendations as to admission to practice, the disciplining of lawyers, codes of conduct, and the like to be made to the courts or the legislature by the organized bar. It is entirely appropriate that all of the lawyers who derive benefit from the unique status of being among those admitted to practice before the courts should be called upon to pay a fair share of the cost of the professional involvement in this effort.

But the very specialized characteristics of the State Bar of California discussed above served to distinguish it from the role of the typical government official or agency. Government officials are expected as a part of the democratic process to represent and to espouse the views of a majority of their constituents. With countless advocates outside of the government seeking to influence its policy, it would be ironic if those charged with making governmental decisions were not free to speak for themselves in the process. If every citizen were to have a right to insist that no one paid by public funds express a view with which he disagreed, debate over

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