Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's push to limit the reach of the state's public employee unions took a hit today after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld so-called "fair-share" payments to unions.
The court was divided on whether non-union California teachers covered under collective bargaining agreements should have to pay union fees. The split means the long-standing fair-share rule stands.
Rauner last year filed a federal lawsuit challenging the fees for Illinois government workers. The court dismissed his lawsuit, but allowed a similar one brought by non-union state employees to continue.
Professor Bob Bruno directs the Labor Education Program at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He says right-to-work supporters like Rauner probably would have won the Supreme Court case if Justice Antonin Scalia was still alive.
"This deadlocked Supreme Court decision certainly is a setback for those organizations and groups that are pursuing an anti-labor agenda and that would appear to include Governor Rauner also."
Action in the Illinois fair-share case was postponed until the Supreme Court term ends this summer.