High Court Won’t Review Whether Unions Can Represent Nonmembers

The U.S. Supreme Court announced April 29 it won’t consider whether a Minnesota faculty union can represent a public university professor who isn’t a union member, saving organized labor from another high-stakes legal battle.

The justices turned aside a St. Cloud State University professor’s challenge to the Inter Faculty Organization’s authority to speak for all employees in her bargaining unit, including nonmembers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected Kathleen Uradnik’s bid for a preliminary injunction based on her allegation that the union’s representation violates her free speech rights.

Denying Uradnik’s petition for review suggests that the ...