Knight

In these three eases consolidated for appeal, we consider the often murky area of the rights and responsibilities of nonunion employees in the union shop context. Responding to issues decided by the district court, the nonunion employees and one of the public employers appeal from parts of the various judgments. The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , and we have jurisdiction over these timely appeals pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand all three cases.

I

Nonunion employees may be required to pay unions for benefits they receive from union collective bargaining efforts. These three appeals involve this issue in the setting of school employees.

*810 A.

Knight (No. 95-35848) involves the Kenai Peninsula Education Association (KPEA), a collective bargaining unit for teachers in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District. Jefferson (No. 95-36283) involves the Kenai Peninsula Educational Support Association (KPESA), which is the collective bargaining-unit for school support staff in the Kenai Peninsula district. Patterson (Nos. 96-35166 and 96-35174) involves the Anchorage Edu1 cation…