Mailee Smith of the Illinois Policy Institute describes a court case from the Prairie State that could have a major national impact. It would extend right-to-work protections.
Twenty-eight states have Right-to-Work laws, which means government workers can choose for themselves whether to financially support a union. But in the 22 other states, workers can be forced to pay union fees as a condition of employment. They may have no choice – pay the union, or find a job elsewhere. Those fees violate workers’ rights and fill union coffers.
But this sort of legal extortion could come to an end for public sector workers during the next U.S. Supreme Court session.
On June 6 the court was asked to hear an appeal in Janus v. AFSCME, a landmark case out of the union stronghold of Illinois. The case challenges as unconstitutional laws that allow forced union fees.
And it has the potential to bring Right to Work to public sector workers in all 50 states.
Currently, the 28 states with Right-to-Work laws, including Missouri and Kentucky, have recognized workers’ important fundamental rights: namely, freedom of speech and freedom of association. A person should not be forced to pay a union just to keep his or her job.
Janus picks up where a previous case left off. Many observers believed the Supreme Court was set to overturn mandatory union fees in the 2016 case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. But that case ended in a 4-4 vote after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. That meant the forced fee status quo could persist.
That 4-4 split vote bodes well for the plaintiff in the Janus case. The Supreme Court grants less than 1 percent of petitions for a writ of certiorari (i.e., requests for the court to hear an appeal from a lower court) filed each year, but it only takes four justices to determine that a case should be heard.
If the court accepts the case, it is believed Justice Neil Gorsuch may supply the important fifth vote that puts an end to forced union fees for government employees.
