SCOTUS Agrees to Hear Koch-backed Union Busting Case

The Court looked set to strike down a similar law a year ago in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

Last year, the overall unionization rate in the United States was 10.7 percent and declining, with most activity concentrated heavily among government employees.

The Supreme Court on Monday canceled arguments that had been scheduled for October 10 in what would have been the biggest case of the term, whether Trump’s ban on people entering the United States from several Muslim-majority countries amounted to unconstitutional discrimination against Muslims. A brief in the current case from the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, for instance, notes that unions are allowed to use agency fees to fund their national conventions, which are hotbeds of openly partisan activism.

AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall says this is an ongoing attack by large corporations to diminish rights of working people. People shouldn’t have to pay unions if they don’t want to, but unions shouldn’t have to represent people who don’t pay, either. A 4-to-4 tie among the justices reverted the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld its earlier ruling in favor of the teachers’ union.

The Supreme Court begins its new term next week, with Neil Gorsuch seated for his first full term.

Janus – who is backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner and a powerful, well-funded free-market network – argues that being forced to pay money to a union he doesn’t support is a violation of his right to free speech.

A loss for unions representing teachers, police, transit workers, firefighters and other government employees would deprive them of millions of dollars annually and diminish their political clout.

Those who defend the practice say unions are negotiating for that worker’s pay and benefits whether they join or not, and therefore should pay dues because they benefit from the union’s actions. “It is time to stop this state-backed union funding scheme”. If the Supreme Court sides with the Janus plaintiffs, the political landscape in such states will be transformed. That’s the law in close to two dozen states, including IL.

The court’s decision to take up the case could set the stage for a potential big legal victory for proponents of employee choice and the so-called “right to work” against the labor unions they have accused of exploiting state-mandated fee collection powers to use the money to buy influence with politicians who set labor rules.

NRTW and LJC chose to intervene when they saw the case was in trouble.

That directive came in an 86-page opinion Justice David N. Wecht issued Thursday that revives a lawsuit six school districts – the Lancaster School District among them – filed against the state Legislature and Department of Education.

With smaller numbers, public employee unions would lose some of the political power that has made them major forces in some states, such as California, Illinois and NY. Republicans hold a congressional majority, making its passage a possibility.

President Donald Trump’s travel ban appears likely to disappear from the court’s docket, at least for now.

The challengers in the new case, Janus v.