A federal judge has rejected a University of Massachusetts law school professor's First Amendment action challenging a state law governing public-sector unions, concluding that binding precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit bars the suit.

Richard Peltz-Steele, a chancellor professor at the University of Massachusetts School of Law at Dartmouth, claimed that he was compelled against his will to accept the UMass Faculty Federation, Local 1895, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, as his exclusive bargaining representative for terms and conditions of his employment.