Liberty Justice Center

WASHINGTON — Dianne Knox describes herself as “a child of the ’60s.” Pam Harris grew up a butcher’s daughter in a proud union household. Rebecca Friedrichs was secretary of her local teachers’ union. Mark Janus supports the rights of workers to organize.

But as the lead plaintiffs in four successive Supreme Court cases challenging the power of public employee unions, Knox, Harris, Friedrichs and Janus take pride in helping conservative groups reach a tipping point in their decade-long, anti-union campaign.

Paying union dues and baking a wedding cake may not seem like classic examples of free speech—except perhaps at the Supreme Court.

Even in his hometown of Springfield, Mark Janus is a relatively unknown figure. 

Janus is a state employee who works in a nondescript office investigating child support claims. He’s also a divorced father of two adult children and he volunteers to help Boy Scouts.

An outsider looking in might think Mark Janus has the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

The child support specialist for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services is less than three weeks away from oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in his case challenging forced union dues.

The court’s decision could change labor law across the country, impacting hundreds of thousands of government workers in 22 states without right-to-work laws.

Government unions in New York together constitute a major industry in their own right, annually collecting at least $862 million in dues and fees from more than 1 million employees.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear oral arguments in Janus v. AFSCME on Feb. 26, in a case challenging the constitutionality of compulsory union dues for state government workers.