This is a BIG deal case: Justices Appear Divided on Challenge to Public Unions

WASHINGTON — A broad challenge to public sector unions was met with a mixed response on Tuesday at the Supreme Court.

The case, brought by Illinois workers who provide home health care to Medicaid recipients, could have been argued on narrow grounds. But the workers’ lawyer decided to go big.

The lawyer, William L. Messenger of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, asked the Supreme Court to overrule a foundational 1977 decision and to declare that government workers may not be forced to pay dues to unions to represent them in collective bargaining negotiations if they disagree with the positions the unions take.

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On Tuesday, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said there was no good reason to overturn the balance struck in 1977. He said he feared that “the courts of the United States are going to fashion, using the First Amendment as their weapon, a new special labor law for government employees.”

Much more about this case and oral arguments that took place today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/justices-appear-divided-on-challenge-to-public-unions.html