Mark Janus, the Illinois man who won a landmark Supreme Court case which ruled that public-sector unions may not forcefully collect dues without employee consent, is back in court seeking to recover the money collected from his paychecks before the 2018 decision, The Washington Free Beacon reported Monday.
Janus has appealed the decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that unions do not have to refund money collected before the Supreme Court ruling.
"The Supreme Court agrees with me – the union was wrong to take money out of my paycheck without my permission," Janus said. "The union knew what it was doing was wrong. The union shouldn't get to profit from behavior that the court recognized as unconstitutional."
His court battle could have a significant impact on the cases of dozens of class-action lawsuits filed by workers nationwide trying to get refunds from unions, National Right to Work Foundation spokesman Patrick Semmens said.
Janus is seeking to recover approximately $3,000 he was forced to pay the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council (AFSCME) 31 union in order to keep his public sector job, The Center Square reported
"When the Supreme Court rules, they don't change the law, they say this is what the law has always been," Semmens said.
The union contended, "The court noted that Janus did not propose to give back the benefits that AFSCME had won for him. The Seventh Circuit denied Janus just as the district court before them, and just as federal courts around the country have denied all the plaintiffs in some 20 cases where this similarly bogus claim has been raised."
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