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The
Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief against the
unions in a case brought by a non-union government employee in
Illinois that targets fees his state and many others compel such
workers to pay to unions in lieu of dues to fund collective
bargaining and other organized labor activities. He is arguing
that such fees violate the free speech rights of non-union
members.
The high court heard a similar challenge out of California in
January 2016 and had appeared headed toward ruling the fees
unconstitutional. But conservative justice Antonin Scalia died a
month later and the short-handed court ended up with a 4-4 split
in April 2016 that left the law intact but set no nationwide
precedent. In that case, the Obama administration filed a brief
backing the unions.
Addressing the change of position, Solicitor General Noel
Francisco said in the court filing that after the Supreme Court
agreed to hear the new case "the government reconsidered the
question and reached the opposite conclusion."
The Trump administration has already adopted opposing positions
to those taken by the Obama administration in other major cases
pending at the Supreme Court, including another labor case on
whether employers should be able to require workers to sign
contracts that prevent them from making class action claims.
The administration also reversed an Obama administration stance
by supporting Ohio in its bid to revive a state policy of
purging people from voter-registration lists if they do not
regularly cast ballots.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley. Editing by Sandra Maler)
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