The Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn closely avoided a major blow for state and local labor unions. Five of the nine justices decided that eight Illinois home health care workers would not have to pay union dues to the state's union. However, the ruling does not extend to all workers represented by labor unions.

The health care workers, represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, argued that being forced to pay the Service Employees International Union, the public union legally obligated to represent all public workers, ran counter to their First Amendment rights to freedom of association and speech.

Nearly half of all states are under right-to-work laws that make it illegal for public unions to automatically collect membership dues from those that they represent. Unions feared that the Supreme Court would rule broadly in Harris v. Quinn, essentially creating a right-to-work nation. However, the court kept the ruling narrow and confined to home health service providers.

In 1977, the court ruled in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that unions can collect dues from public workers so long as the money went towards collective bargaining efforts. Members have the right to withhold funds that are diverted elsewhere.