For the third time in the past four years, the U.S. Supreme Court has now heard arguments as to whether public sector unions violate the First Amendment rights of non-members by forcing them to subsidize the unions’ political bickering with governmental boards over terms of employment. With the High Court now returned to full strength, a 5–4 ruling that the unions indeed are violating constitutional rights through this scheme of compelled speech seems highly likely when major decisions are made public in June.
Yet, strangely enough, during the Feb. 26 oral arguments in Janus v. American Federation of State, Municipal, and County Employees, the liberal justices’ most impassioned argument was that the public-employee unions’ continued well-being should be a higher priority than ending their ongoing violation of workers’ constitutional rights. After all, the Constitution is supposed to protect workers like the plaintiff in this case, Mark Janus, an Illinois child-support worker who objects to being docked dues by a union whose representation he doesn’t want.
