Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

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QUESTIONS PRESENTED 

California law requires every teacher working in most of its public schools to financially contribute to the local teachers’ union and that union’s state and national affiliates in order to subsidize expenses the union claims are germane to collective-bargaining. California law also requires public-school teachers to subsidize expenditures unrelated to collective-bargaining unless a teacher affirmatively objects and then renews his or her opposition in writing every year. The questions presented are: 

1. Whether Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977), should be overruled and public-sector “agency shop” arrangements invalidated under the First Amendment. 

2. Whether it violates the First Amendment to require that public employees affirmatively object to subsidizing nonchargeable speech by public-sector unions, rather than requiring that employees affirmatively consent to subsidizing such speech.