Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Page Number: 36

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

31 

Opinion of the Court 

cal  topics,  and  they  are  undoubtedly  matters  of  profound 
“ ‘value and concern to the public.’ ”  Snyder v. Phelps, 562 
U. S. 443, 453 (2011).  We have often recognized that such
speech “ ‘occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First
Amendment values’ ” and merits “ ‘special protection.’ ”  Id., 
at 452. 

What does the dissent say about the prevalence of such 
issues?  The most that it is willing to admit is that “some” 
issues that arise in collective bargaining “raise important 
non-budgetary  disputes.”    Post,  at  17.  Here  again,  the
dissent refuses to recognize what actually occurs in public-
sector collective bargaining. 

Even union speech in the handling of grievances may be 
of  substantial  public  importance  and  may  be  directed  at 
the “public square.”  Post, at 16.  For instance, the Union 
respondent  in  this  case  recently  filed  a  grievance  seeking 
to compel Illinois to appropriate $75 million to fund a 2% 
wage  increase.    State  v.  AFSCME  Council  31,  2016  IL 
118422, 51 N. E. 3d 738, 740–742, and n. 4.  In short, the 
union  speech  at  issue  in  this  case  is  overwhelmingly  of 
substantial public concern. 

C 
The only remaining question under Pickering is whether 
the  State’s  proffered  interests  justify  the  heavy  burden 
that agency fees inflict on nonmembers’ First Amendment 
interests.  We  have  already  addressed  the  state  interests
asserted  in  Abood—promoting  “labor  peace”  and  avoiding 
free  riders,  see  supra,  at  11–18—and  we  will  not  repeat
that analysis.

In  Harris  and  this  case,  defenders  of  Abood  have  as-
serted a different state interest—in the words of the Harris 
dissent,  the  State’s  “interest  in  bargaining  with  an  ade­
—————— 

N. Y. Times, Sept. 26, 2005, p. A1. 

22 See  Golden,  Defending  the  Faith:  New  Battleground  in  Textbook 

Wars: Religion in History, Wall St. J., Jan. 25, 2006, p. A1.