WeAAsles
Veteran
- Oct 20, 2007
- 23,465
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But there may be a number of 4-4 ties without his vote. For example, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in January in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association as to whether to overrule a prior decision and hold that non-union members have a First Amendment right to not pay the share of union dues that goes to support collective bargaining.
From the argument it seemed clear that the court, in a 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, would issue an important ruling against the unions. Now, it almost certainly will be 4-4.
The court will have two choices in these cases. One possibility is simply to announce that the court split 4-4, which means the lower court is affirmed without opinion by an evenly divided Supreme Court.
This would mean that the lower court decision in favor of the unions would stand, and in the abortion and immigration cases this would leave in place lower court rulings in favor of the conservative result. Or the court could decide to put these evenly divided cases over for reargument next year.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/13/opinions/scalia-supreme-court-future-chemerinsky/index.html
From the argument it seemed clear that the court, in a 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, would issue an important ruling against the unions. Now, it almost certainly will be 4-4.
The court will have two choices in these cases. One possibility is simply to announce that the court split 4-4, which means the lower court is affirmed without opinion by an evenly divided Supreme Court.
This would mean that the lower court decision in favor of the unions would stand, and in the abortion and immigration cases this would leave in place lower court rulings in favor of the conservative result. Or the court could decide to put these evenly divided cases over for reargument next year.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/13/opinions/scalia-supreme-court-future-chemerinsky/index.html
