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December 6, 2018|Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, activism, Janus v. American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, Knox v. SEIU, Public Unions

After Janus, What’s Next?

by Mark Pulliam|

Members of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees union at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
The era of government-compelled financial support of public sector unions is finally over.

February 26, 2018|Abood v. Board of Education, First Amendment, Friedrichs v. California, Harris v. Quinn, Janus v. American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, Knox v. SEIU, Public Sector Unions

Will the Janus Case Strike the Deathblow to Public Sector Unions?

by Mark Pulliam|

US Supreme Court, Washington DC,
A badly-flawed precedent is about to get KO’d in a rematch of a contest that last ended in a draw.

January 6, 2014|Abood v. Detroit Board of Ed., First Amendment, Free-riding, Harris v. Quinn, Illinois, John McGinnis, Knox v. SEIU, Labor Unions, Labor-and-Speech, Medicaid, SEIU, Supreme Court, Union Fees

The Government is Us. Let’s Unionize!

by Michael S. Greve|

Happy New Year, and all cheer the arrival of the one and only John McGinnis on this excellent site! His contributions will make it excellenter still. Rummaging around on the Supremes’ docket and among briefs and petitions, I’ve come across Harris v. Quinn. The question is whether it’s okay for a state (Illinois) to authorize unionization, complete with mandatory union fees, for home health care workers who provide in-home care to individual patients under Medicaid-financed programs. Abood v. Detroit Board of Ed. (1977) held that public employers have a “compelling interest” in labor peace and in preventing free-riding by employees. (However,…

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November 26, 2013|agency shops, California, CIR, collective bargaining, First Amendment, jurisprudence, Knox v. SEIU, labor law, Labor Unions, New Deal

Don’t Pay No Union Dues

by Michael S. Greve|

Here’s a case worth watching: this past April, the Center for Individual Rights (lead attorney Michael Rosman) and Jones Day (Michael Carvin) filed a First Amendment challenge to California’s “agency shops” for public school teachers. (An “agency shop” means that non-union members must still pay a fee to the union for activities related to collective bargaining.) Plaintiffs are teachers who have about had it with the defendant unions. The State of California will likely join the case on the defendants’ side. A recent blog on the case is here; a copy of the complaint here. This baby ought to move fast:…

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July 6, 2012|AFL-CIO, Knox v. SEIU, National Labor Relations Act, Right to Work Law

After Right to Work Takes Effect in Indiana, Unions Seek a Judicial Bailout

by Asheesh Agarwal|

 Amidst a series of setbacks at both the ballot box and the court house, the fate of the compulsory union movement may depend in large measure on the outcome of two lawsuits currently pending in Indiana.  In early 2012, Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a bill that made Indiana the nation’s twenty-third right-to-work state.  Unions have filed two challenges to that law, one each in state and federal court.  The outcome of those lawsuits will help to determine whether Indiana remains a right-to-work state and whether other states follow Indiana’s lead.

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June 24, 2012|Asheesh Agarwal, Citizens United, First Amendment, Indiana, Justice Alito, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Kennedy, Justice Sotomayor, Knox v. SEIU, public employee unions, republican form of government, right-to-work states, Wisconsin recall election

Three Observations About Knox v. SEIU

by Tom Christina|

          Even for someone outside the world of legal academics, it was an extraordinarily interesting week at the Supreme Court.  I found two of this week’s decisions particularly intriguing.  The one I will discuss in this post, Knox v. SEIU, signals the Court’s unwillingness to rely on legal fictions to justify state-compelled speech, and it may also signal a willingness to make a deeper commitment to prohibiting involuntary association, as well.  The other, FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., is particularly interest to me because it could have important implications in my principal area of practice (which is about as far removed from broadcast licensing as possible).  But I will save a discussion of that decision for another day during my stint as a temp for the vacationing Mike Greve. 

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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