U.S. Supreme Court set to
invalidate agency fees
On Sept. 28, the U.S. Supreme Court
agreed to hear an appeal in Janus v. AFSC-
ME Council 31, which threatens to reverse
40 years of history allowing public employ-
ee unions to require non-members to pay
agency fees. This appeal is a key part of the
effort from a number of anti-union organi-
zations to substantially reduce the strength
of public sector unions and members.
In the April 2016 issue of NJ COPS Maga-
zine, we reported on another U.S. Supreme
Court decision which ended in a 4-4 tie vote
because the ninth justice, Justice Antonin
Scalia, passed away the previous February. The tie vote in a
case captioned Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association
meant that the ability of public sector unions to collect agen-
cy fees remained in full force and effect. However, we not-
ed that there were a number of similar cases in the pipeline
seeking to reverse the right of public sector unions to collect
agency fees and predicted that the court would soon take up
another case. That time has now come.
A new conservative justice has been appointed, and for that
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ OCTOBER 2017
reason we fear that the court is poised to
overturn a 1977 decision which found that
the right of public sector unions to collect
agency fees was constitutional. It is likely
that the court will reverse this 40-year-old
precedent and declare that it is now uncon-
stitutional for public sector unions to collect
agency fees from non-members. If this oc-
curs, New Jersey’s laws permitting unions to
collect agency fees will be deemed null and
void.
We would encourage you to review our
April 2016 article. But even if the U.S. Su-
preme Court finds the collection of agency fees to be uncon-
stitutional, we do not believe this will have a tremendous ef-
fect on the NJ State PBA. Most law enforcement officers are
PBA members. The State PBA and its affiliates offer tremen-
dous benefits for members. However, there undoubtedly will
be some impact if the court does as is expected. It is likely that
the court will hear oral arguments in the spring, with a deci-
sion expected by June 2018. We will keep the State PBA and its
membership advised of any developments.