Supreme Court tie upholds public employee fees for unions

The Supreme Court was divided 4-4 on Tuesday over a rule that requires around half of the nation's teachers, transit workers, and other public employees to pay a "fair share fee" toward their union, The Los Angeles Times reports. The money adds up to millions of dollars a year for unions. Because of the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose vote would have served as a tiebreaker, the split decision preserved the lower court's rule: The "fair share fee" will remain in place.

Non-union public school teachers in California, who took issue with paying fees to the California Teachers Association, originally brought the lawsuit to court. By California's law, non-union workers are required to pay the fees to public-sector unions, CNBC reports.

The Supreme Court's decision is a victory for union officials, who had reason to fear a conservative court striking down the required fees and crippling the public employee unions. Prior to Scalia's death, an oral argument in December made it appear that the mandatory dues would be done away with. Jeva Lange

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Editor's note: This article originally misstated how many times the Supreme Court has issued 4-4 opinions since Scalia's death. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.