ABSTRACT
Freedom of association is a corollary of free speech and, as such, it is protected by the First Amendment. People have a right to join with others to try to increase their influence by speaking collectively (see Section 4.6). For this reason, all employee groups including teachers have a constitutional right to form a union and individual teachers have a constitutional right to join a union.1 As one federal court has explained, “Unions are among the quintessential types of associations the First Amendment freedom of association protects.”2
