Saved by the Split: Supreme Court 4-4 Ruling Upholds Public Sector Union Decision

The United States Supreme Court split 4-4 on a conservative legal challenge to a vital source of funds for organized labor. The divided ruling upheld a lower-court decision that allowed California to force non-union workers to pay fees to public-employee unions.

The court, shorthanded after the February 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, and evenly divided between four liberal and four conservative members, did not set any precedents with its ruling in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.

The 1977 legal precedent Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that allowed such fees, which add up to millions of dollars a year for unions, remains intact.

The outcome emphasized the impact of Scalia's death, as he likely would have been a decisive vote against the unions. During the January 11 oral arguments in the case, Scalia was still on the bench, giving the court a majority of five conservatives. The conservative justices during the arguments voiced support for the stance of the non-union teachers in challenging the fees.

The case is the result of a lawsuit brought by a group of non-union public school teachers from California who objected to paying fees to the California Teachers Association union. A California law requires non-union workers to pay fees to public-sector unions representing workers such as police, firefighters, and teachers, to fund collective bargaining efforts.

US conservatives for years have tried to curtail the influence of unions representing public employees like teachers and civil service workers that frequently back the Democratic Party and liberal causes.

A ruling allowing non-union workers to stop paying so-called "agency fees" equivalent to union dues, currently mandatory under laws in about half the 50 states including California, would have deprived public sector unions of millions of dollars a year, reducing their income and political power.

The decision means the status quo remains, with the unions able to collect fees from non-union workers.

Scalia's death will likely also affect several other divisive and high-profile cases that are currently pending before the court — including cases that deal with abortion, unions, voting rights, affirmative action, and immigration.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama announced Merrick Garland, the chief judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, as his nominee to replace Scalia. Garland is widely considered a moderate and a safe bet for the Obama administration in the face of already heated Republican opposition to any nominee. But the GOP has warned it is sticking by its decision to block any nominee until the next president takes office in 2017.