ABSTRACT
In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 US 209, the US Supreme Court considered whether the Detroit Board of Education could require teachers to pay a union fee as a condition of employment. At issue in Abood was an "agency shop" clause contained in the 1971 collective bargaining agreement between the Detroit Board of Education and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the union that represented teachers employed by Detroit. The Court in Abood initially recognized that "[t]o compel employees financially to support their collective-bargaining representative has an impact upon their First Amendment interests." Abood made clear that forcing nonunion members to fund a union's ideological and political activities violates the dissenting employees' rights to freedom of expression and association. In cases since Abood, the courts have struggled to draw the line between those impermissible activities and other activities legitimately related to collective bargaining and contract negotiations.
