As widely anticipated, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against a law in Illinois requiring non-members of public sector unions to pay fees for the benefits they receive from collective bargaining. This decision is expected to reduce the membership and revenues of unions, a long-sought goal of reactionaries.
The named plaintiff is Mark Janus. In Roman mythology, Janus is represented as two-faced.
From CNBC:
Supreme Court rules nonunion workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions
Tucker Higgins | @tuckerhiggins
Published 57 Mins Ago Updated 18 Mins Ago
CNBC.com
The Koch brothers must be celebrating!
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in Janus v. AFSCME that non-union workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions.
The case concerns whether public employees can be forced to pay so-called “agency fees” to fund the work of public sector unions.
Experts said that a holding in favor of Janus would be the most significant court decision affecting collective bargaining rights in decades.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in Janus v. AFSCME that nonunion workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions.
The case, one of the most hotly anticipated of the term, is the second in two days to hand a major victory to conservatives, following Tuesday’s holding by the court that President Donald Trump’s travel ban is constitutional. Some experts have said that a holding in favor of the plaintiff, Mark Janus, would be the most significant court decision affecting collective bargaining in decades.
Janus, an employee at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Human Services, asked the court last summer to overrule a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision. It found that public sector unions could require employees affected by their negotiations to pay so-called “agency fees,” which have also been called “fair share fees.”
Those fees, approved by the court in the 1977 case Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, cover collective bargaining costs, such as contract negotiations, but are meant to exclude political advocacy.
Janus argued that his $45 monthly fee to the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees was unconstitutional. He said the fees infringed on his first amendment rights, and that, in the case of public employees whose contract negotiations are with the government, the fees were a form of political advocacy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ed reformers misrepresented what Janus was about, because it benefitted them politically.
Non-members are already able to opt-out of fees used to finance political organizing, but had not been able to opt out of fees used to pay for the costs of collective bargaining and representing workers in disputes with management.
It’s a shame. Now politicians and other powerful people won’t pay ANY attention to the public schools they didn’t attend, don’t use and don’t value. That means 50 million families without an effective, powerful, organized advocate. Only people who are opposed to our schools will be at the table.
If you thought public schools were disfavored, neglected and ignored prior to this, watch them disappear off the agenda completely now. It’ll be all charters and vouchers all the time in statehouses and Congress and the US Department of Education. 90% of families will not have a single powerful advocate in or around government.
We’ll have to work hard to elect some public school supporters to replace the public school opponents we’re stuck with right now. We can do better. Maye this will be an incentive to clean house.
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I agree with everything that you say. You are a loud voice for public schools…GREAT!
Side issue: “90% of families will not have a single powerful advocate in or around government.”…I believe Diane Ravitch said that number is now 85%. The numbers in public schools will continue to go down as long as the public is not interested or has been bought out by the politics and money in corrupt ‘ed-reform’.
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Anyone who believes that Janus was brought for a purpose other than weakening labor unions’ political power is credulous, naive, delusional, or all of the above. The true tragedy is that it was no doubt decided for the same purpose.
Has there ever been a more destructive month for democratic principles and American values? June 2018 will live in infamy.
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Is there some reason why unions do not incorporate as corporations, so they could be treated as genuine legal persons when signing contracts with other corporations?
And why do Ripofflichens, who believe in the sanctity of contracts, fail to apply that sanctimony to contracts with labor unions?
As if I didn’t know …
Because they spell it sanctimoney …
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Justice Alito’s parents were both New Jersey public school teachers and his father was an immigrant to this country. He should be ashamed.
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Their goal is a nation of atomized individuals hidden behind fake jingoism.
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John King (formerly of the Obama Administration) is claiming he supports labor unions.
Too bad none of them supported labor unions when they were in power, huh? Now that they’re out of power they’re all of a sudden supportive of labor rights. That’s mighty convenient.
In the 3 months prior to every election labor unions have lots and lots of supporters among Democratic politicians. The rest of the time they’re either secretly opposing labor rights or hiding under their desks.
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The table is set for dark(er) times.
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Janus was a scam we all know that. However, the decision will not affect unions as much as the fake media wants us to believe. The decision is actually in the hands of the people. If one wants to remove themselves from their union to save a lousy $1000 per YEAR well than go ahead and make you day.
For the rest of us, just pay your dues this way the Koch bros. can stop walking off and drinking booze celebrating the ignorance of the American people.
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Janus was paying $45 a month to enjoy the pay raises and benefits his union won for him.
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Ignorance or Intelligence: “If one wants to remove themselves from their union to save a lousy $1000 per YEAR well than go ahead and make you day.”
Teachers are underpaid and are struggling to survive. Some haven’t had pay increases for years. $1000 is a LOT of money when one is living under those conditions. Should a teacher join a union or have some money for food for the family. This Janus decision allows one to make the second decision. This isn’t good in the long run but it will happen.
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This is what happened to teachers in wages in Wisconsin when the ed reform backed anti-labor law passed:
“Wisconsin teachers saw a median compensation decrease of 8.2 percent, adjusted for inflation, in the 2011-2012 school year. The average teacher salary decreased by over $1,200 between the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years, while retirement and healthcare benefits dropped nearly $6,000.
CAP’s analysis showed that in the 2015-2016 school year, Wisconsin teachers’ median combined salaries and benefits were $10,843 lower than they were before Act 10 passed.”
The billionaires of ed reform are not looking out for you. The goal is to drive down wages and it works. That’s why they pour money into anti-labor campaigns. The goal is to create a teaching force that make 15 dollars an hour “independent contractors”. They won’t even give you ordinary wage, hour and safety protections. You’ll be in the same position as the Uber drivers they all think is a model for employment.
Don’t borrow money for college. You won’t be able to pay it back with race to the bottom wages.
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The SCOTUS even waited till teachers were out for the summer and then gave their decision. A country is really doomed when the courts become corrupt and our Supreme Court is corrupt with this fake decision
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There are stats on public sector unions that will be undermined by this ruling and these include firefighters, police officers, and other employees in public services. There is also political targeting in the anti-union movement because union membership is higher in large states and especially New York and California. She these 2017 stats, including the breakout by state, and with an indication of free-loaders–those who benefit from unions but do not pay dues.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
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I want to remind all who said that it did not matter whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump won that every single one of these 5-4 decisions is thanks to your vote. The right wing trolls who were all over Facebook and other social media posting their “don’t bother to vote” spent all of 2016 posting about how evil the Democrats are and how you your vote didn’t matter since both sides were just as evil were funded by the people who hoped you’d believe them.
We now have Neal Gorsuch and it is unlikely the Supreme Court will change for a decade. Blaming the Democrats when YOU decided that the Supreme Court didn’t matter is exactly why the right wing gets its votes. You think the Christian Right who votes lockstep for Trump cares whether he is perfect? They want their Supreme Court and the appointees who will decimate this country.
Please learn the lesson. There are no perfect candidates. But there is a choice between those who would decimate democracy and those who believe in keeping it going so the progressive movement can live to fight another day.
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Yes, exactly. As appalling and disappointing as Bill Clinton and Obama were on so many issues, they did appoint liberal justices to the SCOTUS: Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan. The GOP blocked Merrick Garland from even having a hearing.
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“Many voters, particularly young people, understand the time for incrementalism and moderation is long over, and ended for good when a race-baiter who empowers white supremacists and oligarchs stormed into the White House.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/27/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-future-democratic-party
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Wonderfully said. Thank you. In the summer of 2016, I wasted countless hours on Common Dreams making this argument, prospectively, to the Never Hillary-Stein for President zealots, albeit less clearly and eloquently than you have. Everything I said, ranging from “Children and women will die” to “This is about the Supreme Court” to “We can influence Clinton but not T***p,” was met with “Hillary is a warmonger. The DNC is corrupt. Debbie Wasserman Schultz blah blah blah.” Deaf ears and hermetically sealed minds.
This nightmare is on every Clinton = Trump nonvoter, or wrongvoter. Triply so for any dead-ender old and sentient enough to remember the stolen election of 2000. Al Gore wouldn’t have invaded Iraq, you know.
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And for the record, I was one of those people in the 1980 election. The things I said about the evil Jimmy Carter selling out all progressive ideas were no different than I heard “progressives” saying about Hillary Clinton in 2016. I was just as smug in my unwavering certainty that it was my moral duty to defeat the very evil and corrupt Jimmy Carter to “save” the Democratic Party. I proudly voted for John Anderson. Because I knew Ronald Reagan was no different than Jimmy Carter. I was absolutely certain of it.
But I learned my lesson. And I hope those who like me, were utterly certain that Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton were the most evil people ever and Reagan and Trump were absolutely no different can recognize their gullibility and ignorance the way I did.
I hope people aren’t fooled more than once.
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NYC public school parent: You can be proud that you learned. I wish everyone was as smart.
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^^^and one thing I did NOT do is to blame the Democrats for offering up such a corrupt and evil candidate as Jimmy Carter when they could have had a real “progressive” like Ted Kennedy. I blamed myself for being foolish enough to believe the propaganda that there was no difference between Reagan and Carter.
But no doubt there are still people out there who blame the evil and corrupt Jimmy Carter and the evil and corrupt Democrats who didn’t toss him out of office for Reagan’s victory. They are still certain that Carter was an evil and corrupt President who needed to be defeated to “send a message” to the Democrats. Just like there are some still certain Clinton and Trump were no different.
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The State Policy Network, a group including 66 rightwing think tanks funded largely by $80 million from the Kochs and Waltons, has already prepared a mail and digital outreach toolkit for persuading people to leave their unions. This is with the stated purpose of “permanently depriving” liberal politics of hundreds of millions of dollars during election cycles.
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Yep, all they needed was having Trump getting to appoint Supreme Court Justices instead of Hillary Clinton. And they got what they wanted. I’m sure the money spent to convince so many voters about how corrupt and nasty the Democrats are and get them to stay home or vote third party was well spent. The Koch Bros are breaking out the champagne and hoping to continue their propaganda that there is absolutely no difference between the two parties so if you aren’t going to support the right-wing Republican, please stay home and let us win.
It worked great in 2016. I hope it doesn’t work in 2018.
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One more decision day left this term. After tomorrow, brace yourselves for the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the fight over his replacement.
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With Republicans controlling the Senate, it won’t be much of a fight.
What troglodyte will Trump pull out of the Swamp?
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There are always plenty of very smart, eminently qualified, and extremely conservative federal judges to choose from. I don’t see Trump pulling a Harriet Myers.
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“There are always plenty of very smart, eminently qualified, and extremely conservative federal judges to choose from.”
You mean like Neil Gorsuch? I always find it amazing how rich white men given every advantage in life who are a bit above average in intelligence and have even richer white men paving the way for them in exchange for their adherence to the right right wing agenda get the benefit of the doubt.
I’m sure Jared Kushner would be “eminently qualified” if he had decided to go into law instead of real estate and the Koch Brothers decided to underwrite his career.
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You don’t have to be a lawyer to be appointed to the Supreme Court
Why not Jared?
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Looks like Kennedy’s already announced he’s stepping down.
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Happy day for those who didn’t vote for Hillary! This is on you.
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I’m sure Republicans will rush through this nomination before the November election.
My only hope is that this makes voters realize that their vote matters and be reminded that we will have more right wing Supreme Court enabling of the fascist ideas of Trump if they don’t turn out to vote.
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Yes and in addition, Trump is loading the lower courts with lifetime tenured far right wing Neanderthals.
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The lower courts is where you try to slip the trogs in.
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They have been slipping cogs into lower courts for decades and those are the ones under consideration for Supreme Court.
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Is there any chance that Susan Collins and Linda Murkowski would actually stand up to Mitch? Or will they continue to enable the fascist takeover of the Republican party?
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This does NOT bode well for this country. Evangelicals wanted the Supreme Court to ban gay marriages and dissolve Roe vs. Wade. This is likely to happen. Janus is a start towards the demise of democracy and hardships for workers. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are keeping the GOP in power. What will come next?
……………..
Justice Anthony Kennedy to retire from Supreme Court…CNN
…The retirement is effective July 31, Kennedy said in a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Kennedy’s decision to step down could transform the Supreme Court for generations. Trump will have his second opportunity to nominate a justice and will likely replace Kennedy with a young, conservative jurist. That would create a bloc of five staunch conservative justices who could move the court further to the right and cement a conservative majority for the foreseeable future.
The nomination battle will likely ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill as it comes just a year after Republicans changed the rules of the Senate in order to push through the nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee…
Check out this story on CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/27/politics/anthony-kennedy-retires/index.html
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After the Buffalo Teachers went on strike, those who walked across the picket line were nonentities for the rest of their careers. The black balling followed them from school to school.
I’m just saying: if you don’t pay your dues isn’t that similar to being a scab worker? Plus, there isn’t a law that says everybody has to be your friend? Adjust your actions accordingly.
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Why should I be forced to pay union dues in order to teach school.? What about my rights?
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You are right, Grant. You should not be forced to pay union dues. You should not get any pay raises the union negotiates, nor any health or pension benefits. You should not have any union benefits at all. That’s fair.
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