床铺DOJ要求实行全国right to work

 床铺DOJ要求实行全国right to work


Trump administration asks Supreme Court to overrule precedent helping unions

The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to overrule a 
40-year-old precedent that allows states to require public employees to pay 
fees to unions that represent them, an important tool for the U.S. labor 
movement.

It was another dramatic reversal in a high-profile case before the high 
court, and at least the third time since President Trump's inauguration that
the Justice Department has renounced its past positions, some held for 
decades.

It puts the administration squarely on the side of conservative legal 
activists, who have complained for years that the requirement violates the 
free-speech rights of those who don't want to join the union or pay fees to 
it.

The Supreme Court precedent the administration wants to overturn says that 
unions may charge all employees for the cost of collective bargaining, but 
not for the union's political activities. About 20 states allow that 
practice.

The Obama administration supported the unions in previous challenges, and 
when the issue was last before the court in January 2016. It appeared from 
oral arguments that challenge would be successful, but Justice Antonin 
Scalia died a month later, and the court announced that it had split, 4 to 4
, on the issue.

With Justice Neil M. Gorsuch taking Scalia's place, the court announced in 
September it was taking a new challenge on the issue.

"The government reconsidered the question" after the new grant, says聽the 
brief filed by Solicitor General Neal J. Francisco. "The government's 
previous briefs gave insufficient weight to the First Amendment interest of 
public employees in declining to fund speech on contested matters of public 
policy."

The court's decision in 1977's聽Abood v. Detroit Board of Education聽"is 
inconsistent with prevailing First Amendment precedent and should be 
overruled."

It is at least the third time since the election that the Justice Department
has switched its position on an issue at the Supreme Court. While different
views are expected when control of the White House moves from one party to 
another, they can sometimes cause problems for the government lawyers who 
argue at the high court.

The office of the solicitor general, which represents the government at the 
Supreme Court, is supposed to supply the court with a consistent view of the
law without undue partisan considerations.

The Trump administration already has changed its view on one case involving 
worker's rights that created a rift with the National Labor Relations Board.
In another, it changed the Justice Department's long-standing position on 
how states may purge inactive voters from the rolls.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/courts_law/trump-
administration-asks-supreme-court-to-overrule-precedent-helping-unions/2017/
12/06/64794b1a-dabc-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html?tid=ss_tw