1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Supreme Court Invalidates Public-Sector Union Agency Fees: Considerations for Congress in the Wake of Janus July 20, 2018 On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court held that “agency fee” arrangements between a union
2、and a government employer necessarily violate the First Amendment, overruling its 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. Agency fee arrangements (sometimes called “fair share” provisions) require employees to pay a fee to the union designated to represent their bargaining unit (i.e.,
3、an exclusive union representative) even if the employees are not members of that union. The Abood Court had held that these arrangements are constitutional insofar as the union uses the fees for “collective bargaining activities” and not “ideological activities unrelated to collective bargaining”des
4、cribed in later cases as “chargeable” versus “nonchargeable” expenditures. But this term, in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 (AFSCME), a five-member majority of the Court reversed course, holding that Abood was “wrongly decided” and that public-sect