Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the most important labor-related case to come before the court in decades.

In 2013, the right-wing Center for Individual Rights filed suit in a California federal court on behalf of ten teachers led by Rebecca Friedrichs, a kindergarten teacher, and the Christian Educators Association International.

The plaintiffs claim that the sum they pay to CTA to represent them at the bargaining table (an “agency fee”) violates their First Amendment rights to free speech and free association. They argue that collective bargaining in the public sector is inherently political, and that procedures to opt out of contributing financially to the union’s political activities are overly burdensome.