“The U.S. Supreme Court took a significant step toward restoring individual liberty in the government-sector labor market with its recent Janus decision,” says Charles W. Baird in this week’s Acton Commentary.
While the Janus decision was based on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free, uncoerced political speech, exclusive representation in government employment may be challenged as a violation of workers’ First Amendment freedom of association. If I represent you, you and I are associated with each other on the matters covered by such representation. Exclusive representation forces individual government workers to accept association with a union, which is a private organization, for purposes of representation on terms and conditions of government employment.
The full text of the essay can be found here.
