The Long-Awaited Showdown Over Abood
I practiced Labor & Employment Law for 30 years, and was attracted to the subject while in law school. One of my first published articles, in the Labor Law Journal (1980) was on a terribly misguided 1977 Supreme Court decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. The case dealt with the ability of a public-sector labor union to agree with a governmental employer to require employees who do not belong to the union to pay “agency fees” in lieu of union dues. Today, February 26, the Supreme Court is hearing oral argument in a case (Janus v. AFSCME) that could result in the overruling of Abood. The Supreme Court reverses itself relatively rarely, especially in constitutional cases, and almost never to move to a more conservative result. So this case is a potential blockbuster. I have written about Abood and its progeny for City Journal, National Review Online, and Law and Liberty. I had a piece in Law and Liberty today on the Janus case. You can read it here.
