## Facts

- The Arkansas State Highway Commission used a grievance procedure requiring an employee to submit a written grievance directly to the designated employer representative.
- A union representing Highway Department employees, Local 1315, regularly submitted written grievances on employees’ behalf.
- The Commission refused to process grievances submitted by the union rather than by the individual employee.
- The union and employees claimed the policy infringed First Amendment rights of speech, association, and petition by preventing effective union representation in grievance matters.
- There was no claim the Commission barred union membership, organizing activity, or advocacy of particular views.

## Issues

1. Whether a public employer violates the First Amendment by refusing to consider employee grievances submitted by a union, while allowing grievances submitted directly by individual employees.
2. Whether the First Amendment requires a governmental employer to recognize a union or to listen to and respond to union-presented grievances.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the judgment for the union (per curiam).
- The Court held the Commission’s refusal to consider union-filed grievances did not violate the First Amendment.
- The Court reasoned that employees and the union remained free to associate, speak, and petition; the Commission simply chose not to accept the union as the channel for grievance filing.

## Legal Principles

- The First Amendment protects the rights to speak, advocate, associate, and petition the government, including associational advocacy on behalf of members.
- The First Amendment does not guarantee that advocacy will be effective or successful.
- The First Amendment does not impose an affirmative obligation on the government to listen, respond, recognize an association, or bargain with it.
- Conduct that might be characterized as an unfair labor practice under private-sector labor statutes does not, without more, establish a constitutional violation in the public-employment setting.
- Absent suppression, punishment, or retaliation for protected expression or association, a public employer’s nonrecognition of a union’s preferred representational role does not by itself violate the First Amendment.

## Conclusion

The Court held that requiring public employees to file grievances personally, and declining to process union-filed grievances, does not infringe First Amendment rights where employees and the union remain free to associate, advocate, and petition and are not penalized for doing so.


Smith v. Ark. State Highway Emps., Loc. 1315, 441 U.S. 463 (1979)