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Supreme Court Deals Blow to Compulsory Union Dues in Public Sector

Supreme Court Deals Blow to Compulsory Union Dues in Public Sector
Monday, June 30, 2014

The Supreme Court today struck down a scheme that became pervasive in various states over the last decade or so whereby union officials obtained the power to compel personal assistants hired by Medicaid recipients to pay union dues.  The case, Harris v. Quinn, was brought by attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation on behalf of personal assistants caring for family members.  The Supreme Court did not reach the issue of the constitutionality generally of compelling public sector employees to pay union dues or agency fees, but it strongly signaled that the legal analysis of a 1977 Supreme Court decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which found compulsory agency-fee requirements to be constitutional, was "questionable." The Harris opinion opens the door, cracked initially in Knox v. Service Employees, for the Court to revisit the constitutionality of compelling public employees to pay union dues or agency fees as a condition of employment.

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