Log in Subscribe

Supreme Court Plan To Eye Union-Dues Case Alarms Labor

By DAN ROSENBLUM
Posted 7/6/15

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could diminish the power of labor unions to collect fees from workers they represent, it announced June 30. The case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, will be heard in the next term, which begins in October, and a ruling could come early next summer.

The petitioners—a group of California Teachers who objected to paying union dues on the grounds that being required to do so violated their First Amendment rights—are seeking to overturn the Court’s 1977 ruling in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that protected public-sector “fair-share” fees. Their backers argue a “multi-hundred-million-dollar regime of compelled political speech” infringes upon their First Amendment rights because, they say, all union activities should be considered inherently political. 

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in