On June 30, 2014, the United States Supreme Court decision in Harris v. Quinn struck down a regulatory scheme that required home-care providers for Medicaid recipients to pay fees to a union, though the Court declined more generally to overturn precedent allowing public sector unions to collect fees from nonunion workers.

Bennett Pine, chair of Anderson Kill's Employment and Labor Group, contributed the following comment to Law360's roundup of attorney reaction:

While the Court ruled that its 1977 Abood decision — requiring public employees to pay a ‘fair share’ portion of union fees to cover the costs of collective bargaining — did not extend to these privately employed home care providers compensated with Medicaid funds, it did not overturn the precedent allowing public sector unions to impose such fees on non-union workers. Rather, the decision was legally narrow, turning on factual analysis of the hybrid public/private status of these employees. While the Court signaled it may one day overturn the fair share dues requirement, it did not do so here, as the union movement feared it would.”