Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 58, Ed. 1 Friday, September 29, 2017 Page: 4 of 19
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NATIONAL
4A
Friday, September 29, 2017
Denton Record-Chronicle
Supreme Court to hear
challenge to labor unions
Pai IT
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By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Its con-
servative majority restored,
the Supreme Court said
Thursday it will return to an is-
sue with the potential to finan-
cially cripple Democratic-
leaning labor unions that re-
present government workers.
After the justices dead-
locked 4-4 in a similar case last
year, the high court will con-
sider a free-speech challenge
from workers who object to
paying money to unions they
don’t support.
The court, with conserva-
tive Justice Neil Gorsuch on
board, could decide to over-
turn a 40-year-old Supreme
Court ruling that allows public
sector unions to collect fees
from non-members to cover
the costs of negotiating con-
tracts for all employees.
The union fees case is among
nine new cases the justices add-
ed to their docket for the term
that begins on Monday.
Others deal with a defen-
dant’s right to direct his own
defense, police searches of ve-
hicles and overtime pay for
service advisers at car dealer-
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A Supreme Court with a reconstituted conservative majority
is taking on a new case with the potential to financially cripple
Democratic-leaning labor unions that represent government
workers. The justices deadlocked 4-4 in a similar case just
last year.
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“fair share” fees that cover bar-
gaining costs for non-mem-
bers.
Labor leaders criticized the
court for taking up the case.
“This case is yet another exam-
ple of corporate interests using
their power and influence to
launch a political attack on
working people and rig the
rules of the economy in their
own favor,” said Lee Saunders,
president of the American Fed-
eration of State, County and
Municipal Employees.
But National Right to Work
Legal Defense Foundation
president Mark Mix said the
court was poised to protect
employees’ rights.
“With the Supreme Court
agreeing to hear the Janus case,
we are now one step closer to
freeing over 5 million public sec-
tor teachers, police officers, fire-
fighters, and other employees
from the injustice of being
forced to subsidize a union as a
condition of working for their
own government,” Mix said.
The Illinois case involves
Mark Janus, a state employee
who says Illinois law violates
his free speech rights by re-
quiring him to pay fees to sub-
sidize AFSCME, which repre-
sents tens of thousands of Illi-
nois workers.
About half the states have
similar laws covering so-called
GO
ontii
Janus is seeking to overturn
a 1977 Supreme Court case,
Abood v. Detroit Board of Ed-
ucation. It said public workers
who refuse to join a union can
still be required to pay for bar-
gaining costs, as long as the
fees don’t go toward political
purposes.
The arrangement was sup-
posed to prevent non-mem-
bers from “free riding,” since
the union has a legal duty to re-
present all workers.
A federal appeals court in
Chicago rejected Janus’ claim
in March. Gorsuch was con-
firmed in April and the appeal
wTas filed in June.
Scalia died in February
2016, just a month after the
justices heard a similar case
from California.
The court seemed ready to
overrule the 1977 case, and the
4-4 tie the court announced in
March of that year almost cer-
tainly meant that Scalia, not
typically a friend of unions in
high court cases, would have
been part of the majority rul-
ing against them.
The justices will hear argu-
ments in the winter.
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ships.
Labor unions have been un-
der sustained attack at the
high court in recent years. The
latest appeal is from a state
employee in Illinois.
It was filed at the Supreme
Court just two months after
Gorsuch filled the high court
seat that had been vacant since
Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.
The stakes are high. Union
membership in the U.S. de-
clined to just 10.7 percent of
the workforce last year, and
the ranks of private-sector
unions have been especially
hard hit.
About half of all union
members now work for feder-
al, state and local govern-
ments, and many are in states
like Illinois, New York, and
California that are largely
Democratic and seen as
friendly toward unions.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 58, Ed. 1 Friday, September 29, 2017, newspaper, September 29, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131521/m1/4/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .