4-4 decision leaves public sector union officials’ forced-dues powers in place

Washington, DC (March 29, 2016) – Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation, issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s 4-4 Friedrichs ruling:

“While we are disappointed that the Supreme Court’s 4-4 deadlock leaves union officials’ forced dues powers over public sector employees in place, an evenly split court always seemed like the most likely outcome after the sudden passing of Justice Scalia. Today’s order means Rebecca Friedrichs’ case probably won’t be the one to finally free public servants from being forced to fund the activities of union bosses just to work for their own government, but the issue is not going away and could return to the High Court soon.

National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys already have five cases working their way through the court system asking that mandatory union dues and fees be struck down as a violation of employees’ First Amendment rights. Meanwhile, several other cases, including one pending before the Supreme Court on a petition for certiorari, challenge union officials’ scheme of requiring employees to opt-out of union spending on politics and lobbying rather that affirmatively consenting to fund those activities by opting in. Because the 4-4 split in Friedrichs has no precedential legal value, we fully expect the constitutionality of forced unionism to be back before the Supreme Court before too long.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.