The Ninth Circuit has left in place a preliminary injunction blocking California from enforcing Senate Bill 399 against employers that hold workplace meetings about political or religious matters.
The law permits workers to decline employer-sponsored meetings and communications expressing an employer’s views on those subjects, and bars adverse action against workers who refuse. The panel held that the California Chamber of Commerce and Western Growers had shown a likelihood of success on their First Amendment claim. It found the restrictions content- and speaker-based and therefore subject to strict scrutiny.
California’s reliance on a captive-audience theory did not justify the law at this preliminary stage, the court said. Western Growers also had standing to pursue the challenge. The panel affirmed the injunction without deciding whether federal labor law pre-empts the measure. The ruling is interim: the constitutional merits remain to be resolved in the district court.
Official Ninth Circuit opinion
