By now, you have learned of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31, et al. (Click here) The heavily anticipated 5 – 4 ruling reversed over 40 years of legal precedence (Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U.S. 209, 1977) and strikes down laws in California, New York, and 20 other states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, which held that employees who are represented by a union should pay their fair share of fees to support the union that represents them in collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment. The Abood case, in a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court, affirmed that because the “designation of a union as exclusive representatives carries with it great responsibilities, it inevitably also entails substantial costs.”
Justice Elena Kagan offers a brilliant synopsis in her dissenting opinion in the Janus case, calling out the five opposing jurists as “Black robed rulers overriding citizens’ choices,”