Public Employees’ Unions got a little breathing room this morning as the Supreme Court, in a tied 4-4 ruling, upheld the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association. The justices declined, in a one-line unsigned opinion, to overturn a California law that requires public employees who choose not to join a union to pay the fair-share fees that cover the unions’ negotiating activities on behalf of all employees.
Although the opinion is unsigned and therefore the votes cast cannot with any certainty be known, it seems probable that Justices Bader-Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan voted to uphold the law, and Justices Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito voted to reverse the 9th Circuit’s ruling.
It also cannot, of course, be known with absolute certainty that recently-deceased Justice Antonin Scalia would have voted with the Chief Justice and his colleagues to overturn the law. Ms. Friedrichs, the plaintiff in the case, had originally raised objections to the California Teachers Association’s purchase of advertising and campaign materials to fight Proposition 8, the infamous California marriage inequality initiative. It’s possible, given Justice Scalia’s well-known antipathy toward the GLBT community and unions, that he’d have voted against the right of unions to collect fees from employees who benefit from their activities.
The conservative advocacy groups who supported Ms. Friedrichs’ suit have already vowed to petition the Court to rehear the case once a new justice is selected and confirmed by the next President — who may be any of the following: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. It is uncertain whether these groups would follow through on their vow if one of the two Democratic candidates triumphed, or if President Obama succeeded in getting his nominee confirmed to the Court.
What is absolutely certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is that any ‘progressive’ who, when asked if he or she will vote for the Democratic nominee for President this fall — whoever that might be — says, ‘I don’t know’ is an idiot.