That skirted the broader issue of whether all mandatory fees were constitutional, but opened the door for the next case, Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Assn., to challenge the forced fees on free-speech grounds.

“Except perhaps in the rarest of circumstances, no person in this country may be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does not wish to support,” Alito wrote in that decision.

Although Alito can probably count on most of his fellow conservatives to vote with him against the forced fees, Justice Antonin Scalia may prove to be the toughest vote because he has written in support of the Abood ruling.

Catherine Fisk, a labor law expert at UC Irvine, noted that it takes only four votes to hear an appeal, but five are needed for a majority decision. “The mystery of Friedrichs is whether there is now a fifth vote,” she said. “Justice Scalia may be crucial.”

Scalia wrote in 1991 that because public-sector unions had a legal duty to represent all employees who had grievances or other problems, it was reasonable to require all workers to pay their fair share of the cost.

The Supreme Court case comes at a time when public-sector unions are already being targeted by Republican governors in formerly strong union states like Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. About half of the states — including all of the South — have so-called right-to-work laws forbidding collective bargaining and union agreements that require all employees to support the union.

Read the article “Supreme Court to Hear California Teacher’s Suit, Could Change Game for Unions” on latimes.com.