Trump asks Supreme Court to overrule labor precedent

The Trump administration is asking the nation’s highest court to overturn a rule that permits public sector employees to be required to pay certain union fees, The Washington Post reported late Wednesday. 

“The government’s previous briefs gave insufficient weight to the First Amendment interest of public employees in declining to fund speech on contested matters of public policy,” reads a brief from the solicitor general, which argues for the administration at the Supreme Court, according to the Post.

The Supreme Court said in September that it would take on the case, CNN reported at the time.

The 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education found that states may permit public sector unions to take fees from individuals who are not part of the union in order to support collective bargaining. Those fees, however, could not be used toward political actions.

The rule, according to the Post, is a crucial tool for the American labor movement and the Trump administration’s argument to overturn it puts it in line with conservative legal thinking.