California Appellate Tracker

Janus v. American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Council 31

July 5, 2018

A state law requiring public employees who are non-union members to pay agency fees to the union that is the certified bargaining agent for employees in their work unit violates the First Amendment by compelling the employees to fund speech with which they may not agree.

Overruling Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed. (1977) 431 U. S. 209, this decision holds unconstitutional a state law requiring public employees, who are not union members, to pay “agency fees” to the union that is the certified bargaining agent for employees in their work unit. Agency fees are compelled funding of speech with which the nonunion member employees may not or do not agree. The compelled funding violates their First Amendment rights and is not adequately justified by any compelling state interest. Agency fees are not needed to keep labor peace, as federal employment without such fees demonstrates. Free rider problems generally do not justify compelled funding of speech one disagrees with, and less intrusive means can prevent nonunion members from unduly profiting from union representation in disciplinary or other proceedings regarding them in particular.

United States Supreme Court (Alito, J.; Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, & Breyer, JJ., dissenting); June 27, 2018; 2018 U.S. LEXIS 4028

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Janus v. American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Council 31

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