Breaking: SCOTUS on Mandatory Union Fees in Harris v. Quinn

The Supreme Court just issued its opinion in Harris v. Quinn. The general holding is:

The First Amendment prohibits the collection of an agency fee from Rehabilitation Program PAs who do not want to join or support the union.

However, the Court has declined to reverse Abood (generally allowing mandatory fees to public employee unions). I'll need some time to fully analyze, but this looks like a narrow or limited holding. The Court notes that the employees in this case are "quite different from full-fledged public employees."

So, the Court will not reverse Abood, but will also not extend it to the employees in this case. It looks like the opinion includes some criticism of Abood too - its days may be numbered but it survives for now.

We have a 5-4 (conservative bloc plus Kennedy) split in this one.