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Janus and the Private Sector

Jul 3, 2018 Benjamin Sachs

In the grim aftermath of Janus v. AFSCME, discussion has focused on what the decision portends for agency fee agreements in the private sector. Given the cloud of doom that has descended on many of us, it’s not surprising that pessimism abounds. There is thus speculation that Janus will soon be exported to the private sector and that […]

Preliminary Janus Summary

Jun 27, 2018 Maddy Joseph

Here’s a very quick summary based on an even quicker read of the Court’s Janus opinion which overrules Abood and holds that agency fees violate the First Amendment. The majority opinion by Justice Alito starts by reasoning that Abood was inconsistent “with standard First Amendment principles.” Here, the Court builds on its reasoning in Knox […]

Could Originalism Save Public Sector Unions?

Jun 7, 2018 Maddy Joseph

Justice Gorsuch’s silence during the Janus oral argument generated considerable buzz. Wishful (yet tentative) commentators hoped the silence was a sign that the new Justice’s originalism would lead him to uphold Abood. To be sure, Justice Thomas, the Court’s other steadfast originalist, voted with the majority in Harris. And commentators have largely assumed that both […]

Will the Court Consider the Facts in Janus?

Feb 28, 2018 Andrew Strom

Mark Janus’s lawyers are desperate to have the Court decide Janus v. AFSCME without considering any facts. Janus is an Illinois state employee, who is represented by AFSCME Council 31. Like all other employees in his bargaining unit, he is required to pay fair share fees to the union to cover the costs of providing […]

Using History to See the Glass Part Full in Janus v. AFSCME

Feb 21, 2018 Sophia Z. Lee

Janus v. AFSCME will soon decide the constitutional fate of fair-share fees for public sector unions. These fees support unions’ collective bargaining work on behalf of employees they are legally required to represent but who are not union members. Most prognosticators expect the Supreme Court to hand the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF) a win on its claim that such fees violate the First Amendment rights of non-union workers. Yet, as I develop further below, the history that led to Janus offers three thin rays of hope to the labor movement.

Janus Should Lose, and the Justices Know It

Jan 31, 2018 Andrew Strom

Most of the coverage of Janus v. AFSCME, like this recent piece in USA Today, simply (and perhaps correctly) assumes that the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court will use the case to overturn Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the 1977 case upholding fair share fees for public sector workers. But, now that […]

Janus’s Lawyers Want to Make a Federal Case Out of Every Public Employee Grievance

Dec 14, 2017 Andrew Strom

The petitioner’s opening brief in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 contains many eyebrow-raising assertions, but one of the most audacious claims is that “enforcement of a collective bargaining agreement, such as through the grievance process, is just as political an act as bargaining for that deal.” This one sweeping statement is practically all that Janus’s […]

Will the Supreme Court Ignore Pleading Rules in Janus?

Sep 7, 2017 Andrew Strom

Many Court watchers think it is a foregone conclusion that the Supreme Court will grant the cert petition in Janus v. AFSCME, and then overturn the forty-year old decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. While I’m not willing to bet against that, it’s worth noting that to reach that result the Court would […]

Synopsis of 2017 Supreme Court Commentary: Employment Law

Aug 31, 2017 Jonathan R. Harkavy

Last term’s Supreme Court decisions, particularly in the employment area, suggest that the Court was simply marking time while it functioned without a ninth Justice and Presidential politics occupied center stage. But to this observer, the thin and relatively uncontentious body of employment work is as ominous as it is anodyne. In short, last term […]

OnLabor

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OnLabor is a blog devoted to workers, unions, and their politics. We interpret our subject broadly to include the current crisis in the traditional union movement (why union decline is happening and what it means for our society); the new and contested forms of worker organization that are filling the labor union gap; how work ought to be structured and managed; how workers ought to be represented and compensated; and the appropriate role of government — all three branches — in each of these issues.

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