EDITORIAL: Supreme Court deals public-sector unions a major blow

The Supreme Court ended its current term on Wednesday by standing up for free speech and individual liberty in the face of coercion. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices held that states can’t force government workers who choose not to join a labor organization to pay union dues.

Shortly after the decision was released, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, paving the way for President Donald Trump to make his second appointment to the court. Let’s hope his short list is confined to accomplished jurists inclined to embrace the constitutional principles of the Founders.

The labor ruling was widely expected and overturns a 1977 decision which acknowledged that forcing nonmembers to pay for union political activity violated the Constitution but signed off on mandatory employee contributions — so-called “agency fees” — to pay for collective bargaining. The finding was supposed to facilitate “labor peace” and to address “free riders,” the derogatory term for workers who decline to join a labor group yet are covered by union-negotiated contracts.

But Mark Janus, an Illinois state employee, sued to stop the practice, arguing the precedent created a distinction without a difference. Public-sector collective bargaining, he asserted, is inherently political, touching on policy issues such as the size of government and its fiscal trajectory. Mr. Janus maintained that he did not support the policies espoused by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, so he should not be required to finance any of its activities, even collective bargaining.

A majority of the court agreed — and made it clear that workers have a First Amendment right to withhold contributions to organizations with which they disagree.

“Neither an agency fee nor any other payment to the union may be deducted from a nonmember’s wages,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “nor may any other attempt be made to collect such a payment, unless the employee affirmatively consents to pay.”

The decision is long overdue and a victory for freedom. The government has no business compelling workers, in any capacity, to help bankroll groups they don’t support. To argue otherwise is to undermine the concepts of free speech and free association. The solution to “free riders” is to rescind the union monopoly on bargaining power.

Union leaders and their allies have long feared Wednesday’s ruling. For decades, they have been free to raise millions of dollars on the backs of nonmembers to help finance a massive war chest used to agitate for various progressive political endeavors or to support Democratic candidates. The Janus decision threatens to slow the cash flow.

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “is sinful and tyrannical.” Jefferson was addressing religious freedom when he wrote that, but it’s just as applicable to state-mandated contributions to specific causes. If compulsion is all that can sustain Big Labor’s political machine, it deserves its fate.