The Republican Governors Association writes:
The Supreme Court delivered what the Chicago Tribune is calling a “major victory” for Illinois GOP Governor Bruce Rauner this morning, siding with state employee Mark Janus who objected to paying mandatory fees to AFSCME, a government union that did not represent his views. The court ruled this morning that “public sector unions may not collect mandatory fees from non-members.”
The Janus case had “roots in Rauner’s first weeks in office.” The Chicago Tribune explains that, “Challenging the fees was one of Rauner’s first acts when he took office in 2015. He issued an executive order giving state workers who don’t want to pay permission not to, and he later instructed state agencies to stop collecting the fees on behalf of public employee unions. He also preemptively filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the matter escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
This decision is a win for the First Amendment and the freedom of government employees to exercise their right to free association, rather than be forced to contribute to government unions that often refuse to represent their political views. Today, freedom and government workers won and triumphed against the powerful special interests.
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