On June 27, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (Janus v. AFSCME), ruling that public-sector unions cannot compel non-member employees to pay fees covering the costs of non-political union activities. This decision overturned precedent established in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education in 1977.
In the wake of Janus, individuals and advocacy groups across the nation have filed over 100 new lawsuits involving a wide array of public-sector labor laws and union practices. To date, we have tracked 132 post-Janus lawsuits. At least 58 of these lawsuits involve attempts to obtain refunds for fees that employees had to pay to unions prior to Janus. At least 57 involve challenges to membership withdrawal procedures (namely, laws or policies that allow union members to resign their membership only during specified periods of times).
Of these 132 lawsuits, 129 have been filed in the federal courts. Fifty-five suits have been filed in the Ninth Circuit alone, 42.7% of all federal post-Janus lawsuits. The Ninth Circuit encompasses federal district courts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The Third Circuit has seen the second-greatest number of post-Janus lawsuits: 22, or 17% of the total. The Third Circuit’s jurisdiction encompasses Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
