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The sudden death of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year has seemingly granted a reprieve to the US labor movement. Just one month before his death, during oral arguments for Friedrichs v. California Teachers’ Association, Scalia made clear he was ready to join a majority in overturning a 1977 precedent that allows unions in more than twenty states to collect so-called fair-share fees from the public-sector workers they represent, whether those workers join the union or not.

Had Scalia lived, the court undoubtedly would have allowed government workers in every state to become free riders, a move that might have dealt a devastating blow to unions’ finances, morale, and political clout.