A petition from the Village of Lincolnshire, Ill., asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether local governments can pass “right-to-work” laws, and the court ruled it as moot following the state’s invalidation of those types of ordinances, according to Bloomberg Law.
On June 10, the Supreme Court sent the case back to a federal appeals court in Chicago to dismiss. Illinois’ Collective Bargaining Freedom Act took effect in April and bars local units of government from restricting collective bargaining.
Right-to-work laws prohibit agreements between employers and unions that require workers to join a union or force nonmembers to pay fees to cover the costs of collective bargaining and other nonpolitical expenses. Lincolnshire asked Supreme Court justices in March to settle a split in federal appeals courts regarding whether the National Labor Relations Act allows for these local ordinances.
Those who oppose right-to-work laws say the laws are designed to undermine worker rights, and supporters say the laws expand economic opportunities.
The local ordinances allow the smaller governments to have these measures in place when there is no assurance of statewide passage. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against Lincolnshire’s right-to-work law in 2018, saying it was preempted by federal labor law; that decision conflicts with a Sixth Circuit ruling from 2016 allowing part of a Kentucky county’s ordinance to remain.
The Lincolnshire petition said the law should be permitted under the NLRA’s provision allowing state or territorial right-to-work laws. It noted the Supreme Court twice has held that federal laws allowing state action also apply to a state’s political subdivisions, absent a statement clarifying they don’t.
