Supreme Court strikes a blow against unions

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dealt labor unions a sharp defeat Wednesday, ruling that teachers, police officers and other public employees cannot be forced to pay dues or fees to support their unions.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices overturned a 41-year-old precedent and ruled that the First Amendment protects these employees from being required to support a private group whose views may differ from theirs.

The decision, in Janus vs. AFSCME, strikes down laws in California, New York and 20 other mostly Democraticleaning states that authorize unions to negotiate contracts that require all employees to pay a so-called fair share fee to cover the cost of collective bargaining.

In 1977, when public sector unions were getting established, the Supreme Court said teachers and other public employees may not be forced to pay full union dues if some of the money went for political contributions. But the justices upheld the lesser fair share fees on the theory that all of the employees benefited from a union contract and its grievance procedures.

But today’s more conservative court disagreed and said employees have a right not to give any support to a union. These payments were described as a form of “compelled speech,” which violates the First Amendment.

“We conclude that this arrangement violates the free speech rights of nonmembers by compelling them to subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority.

He said powerful public sector unions have led to huge budget problems in Illinois and other states as well as costly public employees pensions that are badly underfunded.

He also rejected the notion that employees who do not support the union are “free riders.” Rather, they are “captives” on a trip they do not want to take, Alito said.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch agreed. All four liberal justices dissented.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan accused her colleagues on the right of conservative activism. “The majority overthrows a decision entrenched in both this nation’s law and its economic life,” she said. “And it does so by weaponizing the First Amendment, in a way that unleashes judges, now and in the future, to intervene in economic and regulatory policy.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor agreed.

The anti-union National Right to Work Foundation, which funded the challenge, predicted the ruling would free more than 5 million public employees from supporting their unions.

“Today’s decision is a landmark victory for rights of public-sector employees coast to coast that will free millions of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees from mandatory union payments,” said Mark Mix, president of the foundation.

“So many of us have been forced to pay for political speech and policy positions with which we disagree, just so we can keep our jobs,” said Mark Janus, the lead plaintiff and a child support worker in Springfield, Ill. “The right to say ‘no’ to a union is just as important as the right to say ‘yes.’”