It’s the case that’s had the labor movement on edge: Friedrichs v CTA. At stake? Public sector unions’ right to claim fees from their members.
Today, the Supreme Court delivered a split vote decision. At 4-4, the now-eight-member court affirmed the judgment of the lower court in favor of the teachers’ union — and labor activists everywhere breathed a collective sigh of relief.
However, as Matt Ford explains at the Atlantic (A Narrow Escape for Public Sector Unions 3/29/16), the future remains uncertain:
Tuesday’s deadlock means that the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in favor of the teachers’ union will stand. But it also signaled that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who almost certainly joined Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas on one side of the split, would be willing to overturn Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the decision that became the basis for public-employee contracts. (The Court did not disclose how each justice voted in today’s decision.) That tosses the precedent’s ultimate fate to the next justice who serves on the Court.
For more, read the full article at the Atlantic.
