From Athens to the Supreme Court: Alumnus is making U.S. legal history

As a staff attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Ohio University alumnus William Messenger, BBA ’97, has argued three cases before the nation’s highest court. Photo courtesy of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

When the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision on workers’ rights this past summer, Ohio University alumnus William Messenger, BBA ’97, had a front-row seat, serving as lead counsel for the plaintiff in the case and making legal history.

Since 2001, Messenger has worked with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit organization based in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation seeks to “to eliminate coercive union power and compulsory unionism abuses through strategic litigation, public information and education programs.”

In winning a 5-4 decision before the nation’s highest court in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in June 2018, Messenger and a fellow attorney secured a significant victory for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The justices ruled unconstitutional the practice of requiring nonunion workers to pay public-sector union fees to cover the costs of collective bargaining, affirming Messenger’s argument that doing so violates workers’ First Amendment rights. The ruling thrust Messenger into the national media spotlight, including in a Wall Street Journal article, titled “The Lawyers Who Beat the Unions.”

William Messenger speaks to reporters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo courtesy of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

“This is about working for free choice,” Messenger said of the Janus decision and his work as a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “If workers want to support a union, that is fine. Our position is just that they should be allowed to not support a union. It’s their choice.”

Messenger is no stranger to arguing before the nation’s highest court, having done so three times.

The first case was dismissed, thus upholding a win he secured in a lower court. The second case, Harris v. Quinn, was a precursor to the Janus ruling. In that case, Messenger argued against an Illinois law that required independent Medicaid providers to pay union dues. Messenger again argued that the practice was in violation of an individual’s First Amendment rights, asserting that making these workers pay union fees amounts to compelled speech. The Supreme Court agreed, issuing a 5-4 decision in June 2014.

“One of the best things about my position is that you have the opportunity to try new theories and develop new cases to try to improve the law,” Messenger said, describing the legal theory applied in the Harris case as cutting-edge. “That’s one of the things that I have tried to do through the foundation.”

Messenger joined the foundation while pursuing his law degree at George Washington University and developed a passion for the organization’s mission of protecting individual worker’s rights to free choice.

“It’s also just very rewarding as a job,” he said.

Messenger has fond memories of his days in Athens, drawn to Ohio University by both his father—a fellow Business Bobcat, James Messenger, BBA ’64—and the beauty of the Athens Campus.

“I just fell in love with it,” he said. “It’s gorgeous down there.”

As an undergraduate, he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity and was a Corporate Business Fellow in the College of Business. Messenger completed a summer internship with then-U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who is now Ohio’s governor, and even dipped his toe into local politics, running in 1995 for a seat on Athens City Council.

“I came close,” he said. “I got to experience politics that way—retail door-to-door, putting up fliers, the whole nine yards.”

Messenger said the independence and flexibility he found in Athens helped shaped him into the person and professional he is today.

“(Athens) is isolated enough that you are not immersed into a city, but it’s big enough that you can explore and try different things,” he said, noting that the routine of life has him missing the freedom to explore he enjoyed as a student. “There are so many things that you can try because it’s all there.”