Live blog of opinions | June 27, 2018 (with First Mondays)
We live-blogged as the Supreme Court released its final decisions of October Term 2017, in Janus v. AFSCME and Florida v. Georgia. Dan Epps of First Mondays joined us on the live blog.
3rd & 7 37yd
3rd & 7 37yd
B
S
O
close
close

-





-
The majority also suggests that it would be unconstitutional for a public employer to agree to a contract that gives union members a better deal than nonmembers. (Which is why imposing the duty of fair representation on the union is not a significant burden that justifies requiring nonmembers to pay fair share fees).
-
In rejecting the Union’s originalism argument, the majority notes that the union presumably doesn’t want the Court to overrule all the precedent that provides public employees First Amendment protection in other contexts. And, Justice Alito concludes, “We will not engage in this halfway originalism.”
-
Here's the opinion in Florida v. Georgia. Lara Fowler will have our analysis.
-
Returning to Janus: the majority rejects the claim that under the Constitution’s original meaning, public employees had no First Amendment rights: “But those examples at most show that the government was understood to have power to limit employee speech that threatened important governmental interests (such as maintaining military discipline and preventing corruption)—not that public employees’ speech was entirely unprotected.”
-
In Florida v. Georgia, the Court holds that the Special Master held Florida to too high a standard, and that, in fact, Florida met its threshold burden to show that its injuries can be redressed by limiting Georgia's consumptive use of water from the Basin without a degree binding the Army Corps of Engineers. But the Court doesn't go beyond that threshold question, and instead sends the case back to the special master for evidentiary findings.
-
Now that the Term is in the books, stay tuned in the next week or so for my favorite thing, which is the final SCOTUSblog Stat Pack. You get to see all sorts of fun stuff, like how many cases were unanimous, and how many were 5-4, and which Justices voted with each other how often, and which circuits got reversed the most. You can find this feature here once it's up (and get interim updates until then): Statistics - SCOTUSblog