Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31. The case turns on the question of whether “agency fee” arrangements—which require workers to pay union fees to public sector unions to cover the unions’ activities other than political action—violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court previously found such mandatory union fees to be constitutional in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977). However, in 2016, the Supreme Court split 4-4 on this question in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

L. Camille Hebert, Carter C. Kissell Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University
William L. Messenger, Staff Attorney, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Moderator: Robert Alt, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Buckeye Institute