Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1466_2b3j.pdf
Page Number: 48

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

43 

Opinion of the Court 

2014,  that  figure  had  ballooned  to  approximately  $10,238 
per  capita.    ProQuest,  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United 
States: 2018, pp. 17, Table 14, 300, Table 469.  Not all that 
increase  can  be  attributed  to  public-sector  unions,  of 
course,  but  the  mounting  costs  of  public-employee  wages, 
benefits,  and  pensions  undoubtedly  played  a  substantial
role.  We are told, for example, that Illinois’ pension funds
are  underfunded  by  $129  billion  as  a  result  of  generous
public-employee  retirement  packages.    Brief  for  Jason  R. 
Barclay et al. as Amici Curiae 9, 14.  Unsustainable collective-
bargaining agreements have also been blamed for multiple 
municipal  bankruptcies.    See  Brief  for  State  of  Michigan
et al.  as  Amici  Curiae  10–19.  These  developments,  and
the  political  debate  over  public  spending  and  debt  they
have  spurred,  have  given  collective-bargaining  issues  a 
political valence that Abood did not fully appreciate. 

2 
Abood  is  also  an  “anomaly”  in  our  First  Amendment
jurisprudence,  as  we  recognized  in  Harris  and  Knox. 
Harris,  supra,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  8);  Knox,  567  U. S.,  at 
311.  This is not an altogether new observation.  In Abood 
itself,  Justice  Powell  faulted  the  Court  for  failing  to  per­
form  the  “ ‘exacting  scrutiny’ ”  applied  in  other  cases  in­
volving  significant  impingements  on  First  Amendment 
rights.  431  U. S.,  at  259;  see  id.,  at  259–260,  and  n. 14. 
Our  later  cases  involving  compelled  speech  and  associa­
tion  have  also  employed  exacting  scrutiny,  if  not  a  more
demanding standard.  See, e.g., Roberts, 468 U. S., at 623; 
United  Foods,  533  U. S.,  at  414.    And  we  have  more  re­
cently  refused,  even  in  agency-fee  cases,  to  extend  Abood 
beyond  circumstances  where  it  directly  controls.    See 
Knox, supra, at 314; Harris, supra, at ___–___ (slip op., at 
28–29). 

Abood  particularly  sticks  out  when  viewed  against  our