On Monday the US Supreme Court hears oral arguments on what’ll likely be one of its most groundbreaking decisions in decades. Indeed, it could dramatically reshape the political landscape in 22 states — including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
At stake is the outsize political power of government-worker unions, and whether they can continue to charge fees to non-members.
The plaintiffs in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 seek to overturn a 1977 ruling that allowed public unions to charge “agency fees” to non-members covered by collective-bargaining agreements.
This, plaintiffs rightly argue, violates their First Amendment rights by forcing them to subsidize political activities with which they disagree. And because those unions negotiate contracts with government, not private employers, all their activities are inherently political.
Which is why public unions — by endorsing and donating to the same officials with whom they negotiate contracts — have become so politically powerful.
It’s a power those unions have exploited to win lavish health and retirement benefits unheard of in the private sector.
In the process, they’ve swollen the size and cost of state and local governments — leaving states like New York and New Jersey crushed by unaffordable pension obligations and outrageous debt, with Connecticut not far behind.
The unions are likely to lose: Only Justice Antonin Scalia’s untimely death saved them in a similar 2016 case, where the court wound up deadlocked 4-4. The tiebreaker will be cast by new Justice Neil Gorsuch.
As Daniel DiSalvo notes in City Journal, up to 30 percent of public-union members may rescind their membership and opt out of agency fees. When Wisconsin adopted right-to-work laws, it was 40 percent.
That would drastically reduce public unions’ destructive political clout. And that, in turn, would help blue states like New York return to at least a measure of fiscal sanity.