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Events • February 15, 2018 

# Should Public-Sector Workers Be Forced to Pay Union Fees?: A Preview of *Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees*

On February 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in *Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees* (AFSCME), a case that has the potential to overturn a 40-year-old precedent (*Abood v. Detroit Board of Education*) that allows public-sector unions to charge nonmembers “agency fees.” Currently, half the states have laws that enable such fees. Mark Janus—an Illinois state employee but not a union member—objects generally to being required to pay AFSCME, as well as to these funds being used to support the union’s ongoing legal fight against the governor’s policy reforms. Janus sued the union for violating his First Amendment rights by compelling these payments. In addition to their responses to that constitutional claim, AFSCME and Illinois have argued throughout the litigation that *stare decisis*—the prudential doctrine regarding judicial respect for settled precedent—demands that *Abood* be maintained. Cato filed a brief discussing the historical underpinnings of *stare decisis* and contending that a proper understanding of *stare decisis* actually demands that *Abood* be overturned. Please join us for a discussion of a case pitting workers’ rights against union rights and state powers—one that may accomplish the rare feat of reversing Supreme Court precedent.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

##### Raymond J. LaJeunesse Jr. 

##### Donald B. Verrilli Jr. 

[![Ilya Shapiro](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Ilya%20Shapiro.jpg?itok=m1_rdWBG)](/people/ilya-shapiro) 

##### [Ilya Shapiro](/people/ilya-shapiro)

Former Vice President and Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

[![Trevor Burrus](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Trevor%20Burrus.jpg?itok=onKmjXsL)](/people/trevor-burrus) 

##### [Trevor Burrus](/people/trevor-burrus)

Former Research Fellow, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute

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