Patriots: For over 26 years, your generosity has made it possible to offer The Patriot Post without a subscription fee to military personnel, students, and those with limited means. Please support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

January 12, 2016

SCOTUS Union Case Is One to Watch

A First Amendment challenge to mandatory union dues.

We’re only days into 2016 and one of the most significant court cases of this year is on the Supreme Court’s docket. How significant? Usually, the court hears two arguments for 60 minutes. But in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, SCOTUS heard only one argument for 80 minutes Monday. The question: Were the First Amendment rights for 10 California teachers violated when they were required to pay dues to public unions with whom the teachers disagree? If teachers, or other public employees, don’t have to pay for collective bargaining, then in the words of Justice Elena Kagan in 2014, “It would radically restructure the way workplaces across [this nation] are run.” It was a bad SCOTUS ruling that gave the unions this overreach of power in the first place, and now, the Court has a chance to actually uphold Liberty. Liberals are actually hoping that Justice Antonin Scalia might be the swing vote to their side, as he’s made favorable comments towards unions. But as the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote, “Justice Scalia has since voted with the majority in cases that recognized the First Amendment problems with union-fee schemes, including Harris and Knox v. SEIU in 2012. Justice Scalia has always been alert to threats to free speech, and we find it hard to believe he would tolerate California’s coercive design.”

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.