WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Public sector unions triumphed before the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday when the justices preserved a vital source of cash for organized labour, splitting 4-4 on a conservative challenge that had seemed destined for success until Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last month.
The case brought by non-union public school teachers in California had targeted fees that many states force such workers to pay unions in lieu of dues to fund collective bargaining and other activities. A loss in this case would have deprived unions representing teachers, police, transit workers, firefighters and other government employees of millions of dollars annually and diminished their political clout.
The outcome illustrated the impact on the court of the Feb. 13 death of Scalia, the long-serving conservative justice who almost certainly would have cast a decisive vote against the unions. But by virtue of splitting 4-4, the justices affirmed a 2014 lower-court ruling that allowed California to compel non-union workers to pay the fees.
“The death of Justice Scalia has proved a disaster for public sector workers who have their paychecks raided by unions,” said Iain Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
The court, evenly divided with four liberals and four conservatives, left intact a 1977 legal precedent that allowed such fees, which conservatives have long abhorred. Conservatives for years have tried to curb the influence of public sector unions, which typically back the Democratic Party and liberal causes.
“The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a political ploy to silence public employees like teachers, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, higher education faculty and other educators to work together to shape their profession,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association teachers union.
