Billionaires and corporate interest groups bent the ear of the Supreme Court on Monday in their bid to deprive government employee unions of funding.
Early press accounts following oral arguments suggest that justices were sympathetic to plaintiff’s anti-union arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.
Politico reported that the court “signaled willingness” to strike down the fees. The Washington Post noted that a majority of justices appeared to agree that it infringed upon Americans’ “First Amendment rights to be forced to pay dues to the state’s teachers union,” while The New York Times said that SCOTUS is “poised to deal unions a major setback.”
At issue before the nine justices is whether public employees who opt out of joining a union can still be forced to pay dues for collective bargaining. More than twenty states have laws implementing what are often called “fair share service fees,” forcing public workers who decline union representation to pay for the benefits they receive from collective bargaining agreements.
A group of ten non-union California teachers filed suit claiming the required recompense violates their First Amendment rights. Taking up their cause is a group of lawyers with the Center for Individual Rights, which the New York Times reported has the financial support of “a number of prominent conservative foundations.”
The paper also noted that “Conservative organizations and politicians, some of whom have received funding from Koch Industries and Charles and David Koch, have submitted more than one dozen amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs.”
Corporate America’s obsession with the case shouldn’t come as too much surprise, since public unions are among the last bastions of organized labor. They boast of a 35 percent membership rate—more than five times higher than the private sector—and often back Democratic politicians and initiatives to constrain corporate power; including efforts to raise the minimum wage.
A ruling against fair share service fees could result in a significant hit to public sector union membership as well as revenue, giving tens of millions of state employees a financial incentive to drop their membership.
Citing the need to prevent freeloading and to ensure “labor peace,” the Supreme Court upheld fair share fees in 1977. But under the business-friendly Chief Justice John Roberts, the conservative flank of the bench has suggested in two previous rulings that it would be open to overturning the nearly 40-year-old precedent.
