Task: sc_lcdispositiondirection

What follows is an opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States. Your task is to determine whether the decision of the court whose decision the Supreme Court reviewed was itself liberal or conservative. In the context of issues pertaining to criminal procedure, civil rights, First Amendment, due process, privacy, and attorneys, consider liberal to be pro-person accused or convicted of crime, or denied a jury trial, pro-civil liberties or civil rights claimant, especially those exercising less protected civil rights (e.g., homosexuality), pro-child or juvenile, pro-indigent pro-Indian, pro-affirmative action, pro-neutrality in establishment clause cases, pro-female in abortion, pro-underdog, anti-slavery, incorporation of foreign territories anti-government in the context of due process, except for takings clause cases where a pro-government, anti-owner vote is considered liberal except in criminal forfeiture cases or those where the taking is pro-business violation of due process by exercising jurisdiction over nonresident, pro-attorney or governmental official in non-liability cases, pro-accountability and/or anti-corruption in campaign spending pro-privacy vis-a-vis the 1st Amendment where the privacy invaded is that of mental incompetents, pro-disclosure in Freedom of Information Act issues except for employment and student records. In the context of issues pertaining to unions and economic activity, consider liberal to be pro-union except in union antitrust where liberal = pro-competition, pro-government, anti-business anti-employer, pro-competition, pro-injured person, pro-indigent, pro-small business vis-a-vis large business pro-state/anti-business in state tax cases, pro-debtor, pro-bankrupt, pro-Indian, pro-environmental protection, pro-economic underdog pro-consumer, pro-accountability in governmental corruption, pro-original grantee, purchaser, or occupant in state and territorial land claims anti-union member or employee vis-a-vis union, anti-union in union antitrust, anti-union in union or closed shop, pro-trial in arbitration. In the context of issues pertaining to judicial power, consider liberal to be pro-exercise of judicial power, pro-judicial "activism", pro-judicial review of administrative action. In the context of issues pertaining to federalism, consider liberal to be pro-federal power, pro-executive power in executive/congressional disputes, anti-state. In the context of issues pertaining to federal taxation, consider liberal to be pro-United States and conservative pro-taxpayer. In miscellaneous, consider conservative the incorporation of foreign territories and executive authority vis-a-vis congress or the states or judcial authority vis-a-vis state or federal legislative authority, and consider liberal legislative veto. The lower court's decision direction is unspecifiable if the manner in which the Supreme Court took jurisdiction is original or certification; or if the direction of the Supreme Court's decision is unspecifiable and the main issue pertains to private law or interstate relations

Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether the First Amendment permits a State to compel personal care providers to subsidize speech on matters of public concern by a union that they do not wish to join or support. We hold that it does not, and we therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
I
A
Millions of Americans, due to age, illness, or injury, are unable to live in their own homes without assistance and are unable to afford the expense of in-home care. In order to prevent these individuals from having to enter a nursing home or other facility, the federal Medicaid program funds state-run programs that provide in-home services to individuals whose conditions would otherwise require institutionalization. See 42 U.S.C. § 1396n(c)(1). A State that adopts such a program receives federal funds to compensate persons who attend to the daily needs of individuals needing in-home care. Ibid.; see also 42 CFR §§ 440.180, 441.300-441.310 (2013). Almost every State has established such a program. See Dept. of Health and Human Services, Understanding Medicaid Home and Community Services: A Primer (2010).
One of those States is Illinois, which has created the Illinois Department of Human Services Home Services Program, known colloquially as the state "Rehabilitation Program." Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f) (West 2012); 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 676.10 (2007). "[D]esigned to prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of individuals who may instead be satisfactorily maintained at home at a lesser cost to the State," § 676.10(a), the Rehabilitation Program allows participants to hire a "personal assistant" who provides homecare services tailored to the individual's needs. Many of these personal assistants are relatives of the person receiving care, and some of them provide care in their own homes. See App. 16-18.
Illinois law establishes an employer-employee relationship between the person receiving the care and the person providing it. The law states explicitly that the person receiving home care-the "customer"-"shall be the employer of the [personal assistant]." 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 676.30(b) (emphasis added). A "personal assistant" is defined as "an individual employed by the customer to provide... varied services that have been approved by the customer's physician," § 676.30(p) (emphasis added), and the law makes clear that Illinois "shall not have control or input in the employment relationship between the customer and the personal assistants." § 676.10(c).
Other provisions of the law emphasize the customer's employer status. The customer "is responsible for controlling all aspects of the employment relationship between the customer and the [personal assistant (or PA) ], including, without limitation, locating and hiring the PA, training the PA, directing, evaluating and otherwise supervising the work performed by the personal assistant, imposing... disciplinary action against the PA, and terminating the employment relationship between the customer and the PA." § 676.30(b).1 In general, the customer "has complete discretion in which Personal Assistant he/she wishes to hire." § 684.20(b).
A customer also controls the contents of the document, the Service Plan, that lists the services that the customer will receive. § 684.10(a). No Service Plan may take effect without the approval of both the customer and the customer's physician. See § 684.10, 684.40, 684.50, 684.75. Service Plans are highly individualized. The Illinois State Labor Relations Board noted in 1985 that "[t]here is no typical employment arrangement here, public or otherwise; rather, there simply exists an arrangement whereby the state of Illinois pays individuals... to work under the direction and control of private third parties." Illinois Dept. of Central Management Serv., No. S-RC-115, 2 PERI ¶ 2007, p. VIII-30, (1985), superseded, 2003 Ill. Laws p. 1929.
While customers exercise predominant control over their employment relationship with personal assistants, the State, subsidized by the federal Medicaid program, pays the personal assistants' salaries. The amount paid varies depending on the services provided, but as a general matter, it "corresponds to the amount the State would expect to pay for the nursing care component of institutionalization if the individual chose institutionalization." 89 Ill. Admin. Code § 679.50(a).
Other than providing compensation, the State's role is comparatively small. The State sets some basic threshold qualifications for employment. See §§ 686.10(h)(1)-(10).2 (For example, a personal assistant must have a Social Security number, must possess basic communication skills, and must complete an employment agreement with the customer. §§ 686.10, 686.20, 686.40.) The State mandates an annual performance review by the customer, helps the customer conduct that review, and mediates disagreements between customers and their personal assistants. § 686.30. The State suggests certain duties that personal assistants should assume, such as performing "household tasks," "shopping," providing "personal care," performing "incidental health care tasks," and "monitoring to ensure the health and safety of the customer." § 686.20. In addition, a state employee must "identify the appropriate level of service provider" " based on the customer's approval of the initial Service Plan," § 684.20(a) (emphasis added), and must sign each customer's Service Plan. § 684.10.
B
Section 6 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act (PLRA) authorizes state employees to join labor unions and to bargain collectively on the terms and conditions of employment. Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 5, § 315/6(a). This law applies to "[e]mployees of the State and any political subdivision of the State," subject to certain exceptions, and it provides for a union to be recognized if it is "designated by the [Public Labor Relations] Board as the representative of the majority of public employees in an appropriate unit...." §§ 315/6(a), (c).
The PLRA contains an agency-fee provision, i.e., a provision under which members of a bargaining unit who do not wish to join the union are nevertheless required to pay a fee to the union. See Workers v. Mobil Oil Corp., 426 U.S. 407, 409, n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2140, 48 L.Ed.2d 736 (1976). Labeled a "fair share" provision, this section of the PLRA provides: "When a collective bargaining agreement is entered into with an exclusive representative, it may include in the agreement a provision requiring employees covered by the agreement who are not members of the organization to pay their proportionate share of the costs of the collective-bargaining process, contract administration and pursuing matters affecting wages, hours and conditions of employment." § 315/6(e). This payment is "deducted by the employer from the earnings of the nonmember employees and paid to the employee organization." Ibid.
In the 1980's, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) petitioned the Illinois Labor Relations Board for permission to represent personal assistants employed by customers in the Rehabilitation Program, but the board rebuffed this effort. Illinois Dept. of Central Management Servs., supra, at VIII-30. The board concluded that "it is clear... that [Illinois] does not exercise the type of control over the petitioned-for employees necessary to be considered, in the collective bargaining context envisioned by the [PLRA], their 'employer' or, at least, their sole employer." Ibid.
In March 2003, however, Illinois' newly elected Governor, Rod Blagojevich, circumvented this decision by issuing Executive Order 2003-08. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 45a-47a. The order noted the Illinois Labor Relations Board decision but nevertheless called for state recognition of a union as the personal assistants' exclusive representative for the purpose of collective bargaining with the State. This was necessary, Gov. Blagojevich declared, so that the State could "receive feedback from the personal assistants in order to effectively and efficiently deliver home services." Id., at 46a. Without such representation, the Governor proclaimed, personal assistants "cannot effectively voice their concerns about the organization of the Home Services program, their role in the program, or the terms and conditions of their employment under the Program." Ibid.
Several months later, the Illinois Legislature codified that executive order by amending the PLRA. Pub. Act no. 93-204, § 5, 2003 Ill. Laws p. 1930. While acknowledging "the right of the persons receiving services... to hire and fire personal assistants or supervise them," the Act declared personal assistants to be "public employees" of the State of Illinois-but "[s]olely for the purposes of coverage under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act." Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 20, § 2405/3(f). The statute emphasized that personal assistants are not state employees for any other purpose, "including but not limited to, purposes of vicarious liability in tort and purposes of statutory retirement or health insurance benefits." Ibid.
Following a vote, SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana (SEIU-HII) was designated as the personal assistants' exclusive representative for purposes of collective bargaining. See App. 23. The union and the State subsequently entered into collective-bargaining agreements that require all personal assistants who are not union members to pay a "fair share" of the union dues. Id., at 24-25. These payments are deducted directly from the personal assistants' Medicaid payments. Ibid. The record in this case shows that each year, personal assistants in Illinois pay SEIU-HII more than $3.6 million in fees. Id., at 25.
C
Three of the petitioners in the case now before us-Theresa Riffey, Susan Watts, and Stephanie Yencer-Price-are personal assistants under the Rehabilitation Program. They all provide in-home services to family members or other individuals suffering from disabilities.3 Susan Watts, for example, serves as personal assistant for her daughter, who requires constant care due to quadriplegic cerebral palsy and other conditions. See App. 18.
In 2010, these petitioners filed a putative class action on behalf of all Rehabilitation Program personal assistants in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. See 656 F.3d 692, 696 (C.A.7 2011). Their complaint, which named the Governor and the union as defendants, sought an injunction against enforcement of the fair-share provision and a declaration that the Illinois PLRA violates the First Amendment insofar as it requires personal assistants to pay a fee to a union that they do not wish to support. Ibid.
The District Court dismissed their claims with prejudice, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed in relevant part, concluding that the case was controlled by this Court's decision in Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed. 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977). 656 F.3d, at 698. The Seventh Circuit held that Illinois and the customers who receive in-home care are "joint employers" of the personal assistants, and the court stated that it had "no difficulty concluding that the State employs personal assistants within the meaning of Abood." Ibid.
Petitioners sought certiorari. Their petition pointed out that other States were following Illinois' lead by enacting laws or issuing executive orders that deem personal assistants to be state employees for the purpose of unionization and the assessment of fair-share fees. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 22a. Petitioners also noted that Illinois has enacted a law that deems "individual maintenance home health workers"-a category that includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certain therapists who work in private homes-to be "public employees" for similar purposes. Ill. Pub. Act no. 97-1158, 2012 Ill. Laws p. 7823.
In light of the important First Amendment questions these laws raise, we granted certiorari. 570 U.S. ----, 134 S.Ct. 48, 186 L.Ed.2d 962 (2013).
II
In upholding the constitutionality of the Illinois law, the Seventh Circuit relied on this Court's decision in Abood supra, which held that state employees who choose not to join a public-sector union may nevertheless be compelled to pay an agency fee to support union work that is related to the collective-bargaining process. Id., at 235-236, 97 S.Ct. 1782. Two Terms ago, in Knox v. Service Employees, 567 U.S. ----, 132 S.Ct. 2277, 183 L.Ed.2d 281 (2012), we pointed out that Abood is "something of an anomaly." Id., at ----, 132 S.Ct., at 2290. " 'The primary purpose' of permitting unions to collect fees from nonmembers," we noted, "is 'to prevent nonmembers from free-riding on the union's efforts, sharing the employment benefits obtained by the union's collective bargaining without sharing the costs incurred.' " Id., at ----, 132 S.Ct., at 2289 (quoting Davenport v. Washington Ed. Assn., 551 U.S. 177, 181, 127 S.Ct. 2372, 168 L.Ed.2d 71 (2007)). But "[s]uch free-rider arguments... are generally insufficient to overcome First Amendment objections." 567 U.S., at ----, 132 S.Ct., at 2289.
For this reason, Abood stands out, but the State of Illinois now asks us to sanction what amounts to a very significant expansion of Abood-so that it applies, not just to full-fledged public employees, but also to others who are deemed to be public employees solely for the purpose of unionization and the collection of an agency fee. Faced with this argument, we begin by examining the path that led to this Court's decision in Abood.
A
The starting point was Railway Employes' v. Hanson, 351 U.S. 225, 76 S.Ct. 714, 100 L.Ed. 1112 (1956), a case in which the First Amendment was barely mentioned. The dispute in Hanson resulted from an amendment to the Railway Labor Act (RLA). Id., at 229, 232, 76 S.Ct. 714. As originally enacted in 1926, the Act did not permit a collective-bargaining agreement to require employees to join or make any payments to a union. See Machinists v. Street, 367 U.S. 740, 750, 81 S.Ct. 1784, 6 L.Ed.2d 1141 (1961). At that time and for many years thereafter, there was "a strong and long-standing tradition of voluntary unionism on the part of the standard rail unions." Ibid.
Eventually, however, the view of the unions changed. See id., at 760-761, 81 S.Ct. 1784. The RLA's framework for resolving labor disputes "is more complex than that of any other industry," id., at 755, 81 S.Ct. 1784, and amendments enacted in 1934 increased the financial burden on unions by creating the 36-member National Railroad Adjustment Board, one-half of whose members were appointed and paid by the unions. Id., at 759-760, 81 S.Ct. 1784. In seeking authorization to enter into union-shop agreements, i.e., agreements requiring all employees to join a union and thus pay union dues, see Oil Workers, 426 U.S., at 409, n. 1, 96 S.Ct. 2140, the unions' principal argument "was based on their role in this regulatory framework." Street, 367 U.S., at 761, 81 S.Ct. 1784. A union spokesman argued that the financial burdens resulting from the Act's unique and complex scheme justified union-shop provisions in order to provide the unions with needed dues. Ibid.
These arguments were successful, and the Act was amended in 1951 to permit a railroad and a union to enter into an agreement containing a union-shop provision. This amendment brought the Act into conflict with the laws of States that guaranteed the "right to work" and thereby outlawed the union shop. Nebraska, the setting of Hanson, was one such State. 351 U.S., at 228, 76 S.Ct. 714.
In Hanson, the Union Pacific Railroad Company and its unionized workers entered into a collective-bargaining agreement that contained a provision requiring employees, "as a condition of their continued employment," to join and remain members of the union. Id., at 227, 76 S.Ct. 714. Employees who did not want to join the union brought suit in state court, contending that the union-shop provision violated a provision of the Nebraska Constitution banning adverse employment actions " 'because of refusal to join or affiliate with a labor organization.' " Id., at 228, 76 S.Ct. 714 (quoting Neb. Const., Art. XV, § 13). The employer countered that the RLA trumped the Nebraska provision, but the Nebraska courts agreed with the employees and struck down the union-shop agreement.
When the case reached this Court, the primary issue was whether the provision of the RLA that authorized union-shop agreements was "germane to the exercise of power under the Commerce Clause." 351 U.S., at 234-235, 76 S.Ct. 714. In an opinion by Justice Douglas, the Court held that this provision represented a permissible regulation of commerce. The Court reasoned that the challenged provision "'stabilized labor-management relations' " and thus furthered " 'industrial peace.' " Id., at 233-234, 76 S.Ct. 714.
The employees also raised what amounted to a facial constitutional challenge to the same provision of the RLA. The employees claimed that a "union shop agreement forces men into ideological and political associations which violate their right to freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of thought protected by the Bill of Rights." Id., at 236, 76 S.Ct. 714. But because the lawsuit had been filed shortly after the collective-bargaining agreement was approved, the record contained no evidence that the union had actually engaged in political or ideological activities.4
The Hanson Court dismissed the objecting employees' First Amendment argument with a single sentence. The Court wrote: "On the present record, there is no more an infringement or impairment of First Amendment rights than there would be in the case of a lawyer who by state law is required to be a member of an integrated bar." Id., at 238, 76 S.Ct. 714.
This explanation was remarkable for two reasons. First, the Court had never previously held that compulsory membership in and the payment of dues to an integrated bar was constitutional, and the constitutionality of such a requirement was hardly a foregone conclusion. Indeed, that issue did not reach the Court until five years later, and it produced a plurality opinion and four separate writings. See Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 6 L.Ed.2d 1191 (1961) (plurality opinion).5
Second, in his Lathrop dissent, Justice Douglas, the author of Hanson, came to the conclusion that the First Amendment did not permit compulsory membership in an integrated bar. See 367 U.S., at 878-880, 81 S.Ct. 1826. The analogy drawn in Hanson, he wrote, fails. "Once we approve this measure," he warned, "we sanction a device where men and women in almost any profession or calling can be at least partially regimented behind causes which they oppose." 367 U.S., at 884, 81 S.Ct. 1826. He continued:
"I look on the Hanson case as a narrow exception to be closely confined. Unless we so treat it, we practically give carte blanche to any legislature to put at least professional people into goose-stepping brigades. Those brigades are not compatible with the First Amendment." Id., at 884-885, 81 S.Ct. 1826 (footnote omitted).
The First Amendment analysis in Hanson was thin, and the Court's resulting First Amendment holding was narrow. As the Court later noted, "all that was held in Hanson was that [the RLA] was constitutional in its bare authorization of union-shop contracts requiring workers to give 'financial support' to unions legally authorized to act as their collective bargaining agents." Street, 367 U.S., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784 (emphasis added). The Court did not suggest that "industrial peace" could justify a law that "forces men into ideological and political associations which violate their right to freedom of conscience, freedom of association, and freedom of thought," or a law that forces a person to "conform to [a union's] ideology." Hanson, supra, at 236-237, 76 S.Ct. 714. The RLA did not compel such results, and the record in Hanson did not show that this had occurred.
B
Five years later, in Street,supra, the Court considered another case in which workers objected to a union shop. Employees of the Southern Railway System raised a First Amendment challenge, contending that a substantial part of the money that they were required to pay to the union was used to support political candidates and causes with which they disagreed. A Georgia court enjoined the enforcement of the union-shop provision and entered judgment for the dissenting employees in the amount of the payments that they had been forced to make to the union. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. Id., at 742-745, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
Reviewing the State Supreme Court's decision, this Court recognized that the case presented constitutional questions "of the utmost gravity," id., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784, but the Court found it unnecessary to reach those questions. Instead, the Court construed the RLA "as not vesting the unions with unlimited power to spend exacted money." Id., at 768, 81 S.Ct. 1784. Specifically, the Court held, the Act "is to be construed to deny the unions, over an employee's objection, the power to use his exacted funds to support political causes which he opposes." Id., at 768-769, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
Having construed the RLA to contain this restriction, the Street Court then went on to discuss the remedies available for employees who objected to the use of union funds for political causes. The Court suggested two: The dissenting employees could be given a refund of the portion of their dues spent by the union for political or ideological purposes, or they could be given a refund of the portion spent on those political purposes that they had advised the union they disapproved.6Id., at 774-775, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
Justice Black, writing in dissent, objected to the Court's suggested remedies, and he accurately predicted that the Court's approach would lead to serious practical problems. Id., at 796-797, 81 S.Ct. 1784. That approach, he wrote, while "very lucrative to special masters, accountants and lawyers," would do little for "the individual workers whose First Amendment freedoms have been flagrantly violated." Id., at 796, 81 S.Ct. 1784. He concluded:
"Unions composed of a voluntary membership, like all other voluntary groups, should be free in this country to fight in the public forum to advance their own causes, to promote their choice of candidates and parties and to work for the doctrines or the laws they favor. But to the extent that Government steps in to force people to help espouse the particular causes of a group, that group-whether composed of railroad workers or lawyers-loses its status as a voluntary group." Ibid.
Justice Frankfurter, joined by Justice Harlan, also dissented, arguing that the Court's remedy was conceptually flawed because a union may further the objectives of members by political means. See id., at 813-815, 81 S.Ct. 1784. He noted, for example, that reports from the AFL-CIO Executive Council "emphasize that labor's participation in urging legislation and candidacies is a major one." Id., at 813, 81 S.Ct. 1784. In light of "the detailed list of national and international problems on which the AFL-CIO speaks," he opined, "it seems rather naive" to believe "that economic and political concerns are separable." Id., at 814, 81 S.Ct. 1784.
C
This brings us to Abood, which, unlike Hanson and Street, involved a public-sector collective-bargaining agreement. The Detroit Federation of Teachers served "as the exclusive representative of teachers employed by the Detroit Board of Education." 431 U.S., at 211-212, 97 S.Ct. 1782. The collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the board contained an agency-shop clause requiring every teacher to "pay the Union a service charge equal to the regular dues required of Union members." Id., at 212, 97 S.Ct. 1782. A putative class of teachers sued to invalidate this clause. Asserting that "they opposed collective bargaining in the public sector," the plaintiffs argued that " 'a substantial part' " of their dues would be used to fund union " 'activities and programs which are economic, political, professional, scientific and religious in nature of which Plaintiffs do not approve, and in which they will have no voice.' " Id., at 212-213, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
This Court treated the First Amendment issue as largely settled by Hanson and Street.431 U.S., at 217, 223, 97 S.Ct. 1782. The Court acknowledged that Street was resolved as a matter of statutory construction without reaching any constitutional issues, 431 U.S., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782, and the Court recognized that forced membership and forced contributions impinge on free speech and associational rights, id., at 223, 97 S.Ct. 1782. But the Court dismissed the objecting teachers' constitutional arguments with this observation: "[T]he judgment clearly made in Hanson and Street is that such interference as exists is constitutionally justified by the legislative assessment of the important contribution of the union shop to the system of labor relations established by Congress." Id., at 222, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Abood Court understood Hanson and Street to have upheld union-shop agreements in the private sector based on two primary considerations: the desirability of "labor peace" and the problem of " 'free riders[hip].' " 431 U.S., at 220-222, 224, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The Court thought that agency-shop provisions promote labor peace because the Court saw a close link between such provisions and the "principle of exclusive union representation." Id., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782. This principle, the Court explained, "prevents inter-union rivalries from creating dissension within the work force and eliminating the advantages to the employee of collectivization." Id., at 220-221, 97 S.Ct. 1782. In addition, the Court noted, the "designation of a single representative avoids the confusion that would result from attempting to enforce two or more agreements specifying different terms and conditions of employment." Id., at 220, 97 S.Ct. 1782. And the Court pointed out that exclusive representation "frees the employer from the possibility of facing conflicting demands from different unions, and permits the employer and a single union to reach agreements and settlements that are not subject to attack from rival labor organizations." Id., at 221, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
Turning to the problem of free ridership, Abood noted that a union must " 'fairly and equitably... represent all employees' " regardless of union membership, and the Court wrote as follows: The "union-shop arrangement has been thought to distribute fairly the cost of these activities among those who benefit, and it counteracts the incentive that employees might otherwise have to become 'free riders' to refuse to contribute to the union while obtaining benefits of union representation." Id., at 221-222, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
The plaintiffs in Abood argued that Hanson and Street should not be given much weight because they did not arise in the public sector, and the Court acknowledged that public-sector bargaining is different from private-sector bargaining in some notable respects. 431 U.S., at 227-228, 97 S.Ct. 1782. For example, although public and private employers both desire to keep costs down, the Court recognized that a public employer "lacks an important discipline against agreeing to increases in labor costs that in a market system would require price increases." Id., at 228, 97 S.Ct. 1782. The Court also noted that "decisionmaking by a public employer is above all a political process" undertaken by people "ultimately responsible to the electorate." Ibid. Thus, whether a public employer accedes to a union's demands, the Court wrote, "will depend upon a blend of political ingredients," thereby giving public employees "more influence in the decisionmaking process that is possessed by employees similarly organized in the private sector." Ibid. But despite these acknowledged differences between private- and public-sector bargaining, the Court treated Hanson and Street as essentially controlling.
Instead of drawing a line between the private and public sectors, the Abood Court drew a line between, on the one hand, a union's expenditures for "collective-bargaining, contract administration, and grievance-adjustment purposes," 431 U.S., at 232, 97 S.Ct. 1782, and, on the other, expenditures for political or ideological purposes. Id., at 236, 97 S.Ct. 1782.
D
The Abood Court's analysis is questionable on several grounds. Some of these were noted or apparent at or before the time of the decision, but several have become more evident and troubling in the years since then.
The Abood Court seriously erred in treating Hanson and Street as having all but decided the constitutionality of compulsory payments to a public-sector union. As we have explained, Street was not a constitutional decision at all, and Hanson disposed of the critical question in a single, unsupported sentence that its author essentially abandoned a few years later. Surely a First Amendment issue of this importance deserved better treatment.
The Abood Court fundamentally misunderstood the holding in Hanson, which was really quite narrow. As the Court made clear in Street, "all that was held in Hanson was that [the RLA] was constitutional in its bare authorization of union-shop contracts requiring workers to give 'financial support' to unions legally authorized to act as their collective bargaining agents." 367 U.S., at 749, 81 S.Ct. 1784 (emphasis added). In Abood, on the other hand, the State of Michigan did more than simply authorize the imposition of an agency fee. A state instrumentality, the Detroit Board of Education, actually imposed that fee. This presented a very different question.
Abood failed to appreciate the difference between the core union speech involuntarily subsidized by dissenting public-sector employees and the core union speech involuntarily funded by their counterparts in the private sector. In the public sector, core issues such as wages, pensions, and benefits are important political issues, but that is generally not so in the private sector. In the years since Abood, as state and local expenditures on employee wages and benefits have mushroomed, the importance of the difference between bargaining in the public and private sectors has been driven home.7
Abood failed to appreciate the conceptual difficulty of distinguishing in public-sector cases between union expenditures that are made for collective-bargaining purposes and those that are made to achieve political ends. In the private sector, the line is easier to see. Collective bargaining concerns the union's dealings with the employer; political advocacy and lobbying are directed at the government. But in the public sector, both collective-bargaining and political advocacy and lobbying are directed at the government.
Abood does not seem to have anticipated the magnitude of the practical administrative problems that would result in attempting to classify public-sector union expenditures as either "chargeable" (in Abood's terms, expenditures for "collective-bargaining, contract administration, and grievance-adjustment purposes," id., at 232, 97 S.Ct. 1782) or nonchargeable ( i.e., expenditures for political or ideological purposes, id., at 236, 97 S.Ct. 1782). In the years since Abood, the Court has struggled repeatedly with this issue. See Ellis v. Railway Clerks, 466 U.S. 435, 104 S.Ct. 1883, 80 L.Ed.2d 428 (1984); Teachers v. Hudson, 475 U.S. 292, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986); Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Assn., 500 U.S. 507, 111 S.Ct. 1950, 114 L.Ed.2d 572 (1991); Locke v. Karass, 555 U.S. 207, 129 S.Ct. 798, 172 L.Ed.2d 552 (2009). In Lehnert, the Court held that "chargeable activities must (1) be 'germane' to collective-bargaining activity; (2) be justified by the government's vital policy interest in labor peace and avoiding 'free riders'; and (3) not significantly add to the burdening of free speech that is inherent in the allowance of an agency or union shop." 500 U.S., at 519, 111 S.Ct. 1950. But as noted in Justice SCALIA's dissent in that case, "each one of the three 'prongs' of the test involves a substantial judgment call (What is 'germane'? What is 'justified'? What is a'significant' additional burden)." Id., at 551, 111 S.Ct. 1950 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part).
Abood likewise did not foresee the practical problems that would face objecting nonmembers. Employees who suspect that a union has improperly put certain expenses in the "germane" category must bear a heavy burden if they wish to challenge the union's actions. "[T]he onus is on the employees to come up with the resources to mount the legal challenge in a timely fashion," Knox, 567 U.S., at ----, 132 S.Ct., at 2294 (citing Lehnert,supra, at 513, 111 S.Ct. 1950), and litigating such cases is expensive. Because of the open-ended nature of the Lehnert test, classifying particular categories of expenses may not be straightforward. See Jibson v. Michigan Ed. Assn.-NEA, 30 F.3d 723, 730 (C.A.6 1994). And although Hudson required that a union's books be audited, auditors do not themselves review the correctness of a union's categorization. See Knox, supra, at ----, 132 S.Ct., at 2294

Question: What is the ideological direction of the decision reviewed by the Supreme Court?
A. Conservative
B. Liberal
C. Unspeciﬁable
Answer:

Answer: A