Daniel B. Locke, et al. v. Edward A. Karass, State Controller, et al. (555 U.S. 207)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 21, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 555 U.S. 207 · 129 S. Ct. 798
- Decided
- January 21, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2008
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Unions
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The State of Maine requires government employees to pay a service fee to the local union that acts as their exclusive bargaining agent even if those employees disagree with, and do not belong to, the union. This Court has held that, in principle, the government may require this kind of payment without violating the First Amendment. See, e. g., Railway Employes v. Hanson, 351 U. S. 225 (1956) (upholding such an arrangement as constitutional); Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 431 U. S. 209 (1977) (same); Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Assn., 500 U. S. 507 (1991) (same). At the same time, the Court has considered the constitutionality of charging for various elements of such a fee, upholding the charging of some elements (e. g., those related to administering a collective-bargaining contract) while forbidding the charging of other elements (e. g., those related to political expenditures). Compare, e. g., Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U. S. 435 (1984), with Machinists v. Street, 367 U. S. 740 (1961). In this case, a local union charges nonmembers a service fee that (among other things) reflects an affiliation fee that the local union pays to its national union organization. We focus upon one portion of that fee, a portion that the national union uses to pay for litigation expenses incurred in large part on behalf of other local units. We…
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