George Rose Smith

“ We think that a municipal employer is not disabled because it is an agency of the State from inquiring of its employees as to matters that may prove relevant to their fitness and suitability for the public service. Past conduct may well relate to present fitness; past loyalty may have a reasonable relationship to present and future trust. Both are commonly inquired into in determining fitness for both high and low positions in private industry and are not less relevant in public employment. ”

“ Act 10 provides that no person shall be employed as a teacher in any of the state's public schools or as a superintendent or principal in any elementary or secondary school without having first filed with the employing authority an affidavit giving the names and addresses of all organizations and associations to which the applicant has belonged within the preceding five years or to which he has paid regular dues or made regular contributions within that time. ”

“ Moreover, even if secrecy should not be observed in every instance it still cannot be surely predicted that any teacher will be eliminated from the school system. Unlike the statute upheld in the Adler case, supra, which mandatorily forbade the employment of persons belonging to subversive organizations, Act 10 does not affirmatively require a school board to take any action, no matter what associations an affidavit may reveal. ”

“ That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted. ”

“ Such investigations are the usual practice among private employers, and, as the court pointed out in Garner v. Board of Public Works of Los Angeles, 341 U.S. 716, public employers are not denied the privilege of making similar inquiries. ”