Scalia and other conservatives pressed to justify overturning Abood v Detroit Board of Education,which upheld requirement that teachers pay union fees In Monday’s oral arguments at the US supreme court, US solicitor general Donald B Verrilli Jr sought to establish the court’s five conservative members on the spot. Verrilli did this in a closely watched case in which 10 California teachers assert that being forced to pay union fees violates their first amendment rights. Backing the teachers’ union in the case, or Verrilli pressed the court’s conservative members to justify their apparent plug toward overturning a unanimous 1977 supreme court decision,Abood v Detroit Board of Education, that upheld a requirement that public school teachers pay union fees, or even when they opt out of joining the union. Underlining the gravity of overturning a decades-old ruling,Verrilli said: “We’re talking approximately overruling a precedent of 40 years’ standing. There needs to be a showing of changed circumstances.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com