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 The case brought by non-union public school teachers in California
had targeted fees that many states force such workers to pay unions
in lieu of dues to fund collective bargaining and other activities.
A loss in this case would have deprived unions representing
teachers, police, transit workers, firefighters and other government
employees of millions of dollars annually and diminished their
political clout.
The outcome illustrated the impact on the court of the Feb. 13 death
of Scalia, the long-serving conservative justice who almost
certainly would have cast a decisive vote against the unions. But by
virtue of splitting 4-4, the justices affirmed a 2014 lower-court
ruling that allowed California to compel non-union workers to pay
the fees.
"The death of Justice Scalia has proved a disaster for public sector
workers who have their paychecks raided by unions," said Iain
Murray, vice president for strategy at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
 The court, evenly divided with four liberals and four conservatives,
left intact a 1977 legal precedent that allowed such fees, which
conservatives have long abhorred. Conservatives for years have tried
to curb the influence of public sector unions, which typically back
the Democratic Party and liberal causes.
"The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a political ploy to silence
public employees like teachers, school bus drivers, cafeteria
workers, higher education faculty and other educators to work
together to shape their profession," said Lily Eskelsen Garcia,
president of the National Education Association teachers union.
The case reached the high court after a Washington-based
conservative group, the Center for Individual Rights, sued on behalf
of lead plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs, an elementary school teacher
in Anaheim, and nine other teachers. They argued the fees infringed
upon the free-speech rights of non-union workers under the U.S.
Constitution.
'A DISASTER'
During Jan. 11 oral arguments in the case, Scalia was still on the
bench, giving the court a majority of five conservatives. The
conservative justices during the arguments voiced support for the
non-union teachers.
It is the second case in which the court has split 4-4 since Scalia
died, with more likely in the coming months, perhaps including major
cases on abortion, voting rights and contraception insurance
coverage.
It remains unclear when Scalia will be replaced. Senate Republicans
have vowed to block confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominee
to replace Scalia, centrist appellate judge Merrick Garland.
Republicans fear Garland's confirmation would tilt the court to the
left for the first time in decades.
At issue in the case decided on Tuesday were so-called agency fees
equivalent to union dues, currently mandatory for non-union workers
under laws in about half the states including California. The
decision means the status quo remains, with the unions able to
collect fees from non-union workers.
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California's non-union teachers pay the union, which has 325,000
members, around $600 annually in mandatory fees for collective
bargaining.
The non-union teachers' lawyers said they plan to ask the court to
rehear case.
"With the death of Justice Scalia, this outcome was not unexpected,"
said Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights.
The split decision means there is "ongoing doubt about the
constitutionality of its forcible collection of millions of dollars
in dues," Pell added.
About 5 million public sector employees are subject to union
contracts that include mandatory fee provisions, according to the
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which backed the
non-union teachers.
Organized labor had expressed worries that a ruling throwing out the
fees would give employees less incentive to join public-sector
unions because they would get all the benefits of collective
bargaining undertaken by unions without having to pay for it.
The teachers who filed the lawsuit in 2013 asked the justices to
overturn the 1977 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education Supreme Court
ruling that allowed laws that permitted public sector unions to
collect fees from workers who were not members as long as the money
was not spent on political activities.
Agency fees are already banned in 25 states that have so-called
right-to-work laws. In those states, unions still represent workers
but membership rates are lower. Federal employee unions also cannot
collect such fees.
The ruling comes as a relief to organized labor because unionized
civil servants in states without right-to-work laws comprise its
main power base.
The court last week also split 4-4 split in a loan discrimination
case. Last month, Dow Chemical Co opted to settle a class action
case pending before the court for $835 million, citing Scalia's
death as a reason. Scalia was seen as a reliable vote for class
action defendants.
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