Speaking of the US Supreme Court, SCOTUS has announced that it will take up the case of Janus v AFSCME, dealing with right to work laws, and hear arguments in the case this term (likely next calendar year). At issue is whether or not public-sector workers can be forced to join the representing union or failing that, pay union fees in lieu of dues as a condition of employment. This case, which comes out of Illinois, stems from an executive order issued in 2015 by Governor Bruce Rauner that prohibited the state from passing along those union fees (known in Illinois as “fair share fees”) to the unions. Not surprisingly, the case ended up in court and is now before SCOTUS with arguments expected in early 2018 and a final decision likely sometime next spring. In March of 2016, just one month after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, SCOTUS deadlocked in Friedrichs v.California Teachers Association, a case coming out of California that centered on the very same issue. With Justice Neil Gorsuch since having been nominated, confirmed and currently sitting on the court, the issue will soon be decided one way or the other! Presently, some 28 states have right to work laws in place, prohibiting the payment of fair share fees as a condition of employment. Just last week, democrats in the US Senate, led by Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, filed legislation seeking to ban outright all right to work laws across the country!