Supreme Court Allows Union to Charge Litigation Costs to Nonmembers
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a union local may charge nonmembers for national litigation costs without violating their First Amendment rights.
The nonmembers may be charged, the Supreme Court held in Locke v. Karass, as long as the subject matter of the national litigation involves issues that could be charged to nonmembers if the litigation were pursued at the local level, SCOTUSblog reports.
The suit challenging the fees was brought by Maine government employees required by the state to pay a union service fee even if they don’t belong to the union. They contended the First Amendment prevents them from being assessed fees for national litigation, Stephen G. Breyer wrote in his opinion (PDF) for the unanimous court.
Past precedent has held that union service fees do not violate the nonmembers’ First Amendment rights if charges for political activities and lobbying are excluded, the Associated Press reports. At issue in Locke v. Karass was whether the litigation costs were among the kinds of charges that run afoul of the First Amendment.
In this case, Breyer wrote, the nonmembers were being charged for national litigation concerning issues such as collective bargaining and contract administration—fees that were permissible.
