UAW lawyers’ local fights congressional subpoena

House committee seeks details on Gaza cease-fire vote

Members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325, at the Legal Aid Society picketed outside of their downtown Manhattan offices in April 2023. This week, the ALAA refused to comply with a congressional subpoena related to members’ vote on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in December.

DUNCAN FREEMAN /THE CHIEF

Posted Thursday, March 28, 2024 1:08 pm

BY DUNCAN FREEMAN

A United Auto Workers local representing public defenders in New York declined to comply with a congressional subpoena this week, arguing in a letter to the House of Representative committee that its demands exceed its jurisdiction and threaten workers’ free speech rights.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina), chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, subpoenaed the Association of Legal Aid Attorney’s Local 2325 on March 11 for information regarding a vote that ALAA members took in December on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Foxx initially requested a bevy of information on matters related to the resolution in a January letter to ALAA’s president, Lisa Ohta. When the union failed to respond to the request, Foxx subpoenaed the union.

In conjunction with lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union, the union on Monday responded to Foxx, writing in a letter that it objects to the subpoena and that Foxx’s requests for information were “vague and overbroad.”

“The ALAA and Ms. Ohta object to the subpoena on the ground it exceeds the lawful and legitimate jurisdiction of the Committee,” the response reads. “The Committee’s true interest in this matter arises out of the Committee’s hostility to the content of the ALAA resolution, which not only renders the subpoena beyond the Committee’s legitimate authority but also violates the United States Constitution…”