This morning, the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the requirement in California that government employees, such as public school teachers, pay fees to the local union even if they choose not to join the union.
In Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Rebecca Friedrichs and other teachers argue that forcing them to pay fees for the union’s collective bargaining costs amounts to compelled speech in violation of their First Amendment rights.
In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), the Supreme Court upheld “agency shop” arrangements, where government employees who don’t join a union must pay an agency fee for a “fair share” of the union’s collective bargaining costs because the nonmembers supposedly benefit from collective bargaining agreements. The Court determined that unions may not spend nonmembers’ agency fees on “ideological activities unrelated to collective bargaining.”
More...
The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute, with more than 453,000 individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, mission is
to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
