Case Could Outlaw Forced Public Sector Union Dues

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to grant cert in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association:

The Supreme Court’s announcement that it will hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association is an important step towards finally respecting the First Amendment rights of America’s public servants. The question of whether teachers and other government employees can be required to subsidize the speech of a union they do not support as a condition of working for their own government is now squarely before the Court. We hope the Court will build on majority opinions from the National Right to Work Foundation-won Knox v. SEIU and Harris v. Quinn cases and finally rule that mandatory union dues violate the fundamental principles laid out in the Bill of Rights.

The American people overwhelmingly support the principle that while individual employees should be free to join and pay dues to a union if they so choose, none should be required to do so, which is fully in line with the First Amendment’s protections for Free Speech and Freedom of Association.  We hope the High Court will follow through on last year’s Harris decision and ensure that no public employee will ever again be forced to pay union dues to get or keep a job