Supreme Court Saves Public Sector Unions

Today, the Supreme Court refused to reconsider its earlier 4-4 non-decision in March that let stand a lower court ruling that allowed unions to charge “fair-share” fees that are collected to offset the costs of collective bargaining but cannot be used for union political activity. The case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, revolved around the requirement that non-union teachers be required to pay these fees to the union if their contracts were covered by the union’s collective bargaining agreements. That would seem to make perfect sense as the non-union teachers would be the beneficiaries of the union’s collective bargaining work.

In a novel argument, some California teachers argued that, since taxpayers pay the salaries and benefits of public sector workers, any bargaining over those issues by public sector unions is an inherently political activity. Remarkably, it appears that at least four Supreme Court justices actually bought this argument and it seemed as though Justice Scalia was leaning toward joining them. But he died before the case could be decided, leading to the March non-decision that affirmed the lower courts ruling upholding these fees. Obviously, if the simple act of bargaining for salaries and benefits by a public sector union had been ruled unconstitutional, it pretty much would have meant the end of public sector unions as there would be significantly less money to actually run an organized union.

This case shows once again how the death of Scalia has pretty much effectively neutered the conservatives on the Supreme Court.  Because the Senate Republicans will not fulfill their constitutional role to advise and consent, the November election will determine the direction of the Court going forward. Assuming Obama or Hillary, if she wins, is actually able to get a nominee actually confirmed by the Senate, the liberal shift on the Court will be complete and a new, liberal era could conceivably last quite a long time.