Behind a Key Anti-Labor Case, a Web of Conservative Donors
In a 2014 case brought by a group that had received more than $1 million in contributions from the Bradley Foundation, the Supreme Court ruled
that home-care aides and other “partial-public employees” paid through Medicaid could not be forced to pay fair-share fees if they left their unions.
Tax filings show that Mr. Uihlein has also been the chief financial backer in recent years of the Liberty Justice Center,
which represents Mark Janus, the Illinois child support specialist who is the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case.
In seeking to produce similar results nationally, conservative donors have created a symbiosis between groups aiming to overturn Supreme Court precedent favorable to unions and groups
that take advantage of those rulings to drain unions of members.
During 2015 and 2016, the foundation also substantially increased its contributions, totaling well over $1 million,
to groups like the Independence Institute of Colorado and the Freedom Foundation of Washington State.
Then in 2016, the court heard a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association,
that could have struck down fair-share fee requirements for all public employees represented by unions in more than 20 states, including California, Illinois and New York.
“Bruce is the only one in the race who isn’t beholden to public-sector unions,” Mr. Uihlein said of Mr. Rauner,
the year before his 2014 election as Illinois governor, in an interview with Crain’s Business Chicago.
It is an effort that will reach its apex on Monday, when the Supreme Court hears a case
that could cripple public-sector unions by allowing the workers they represent to avoid paying fees.
