Supreme Court Hands Win To Home Care Workers

(Washington, D.C) -- Homecare workers in Illinois don't have to join a union or pay union fees if they don't want to. That's the ruling that came down from the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday and a blow to Governor Pat Quinn, who made it a requirement for homecare workers to pay union fees back in 2009 so they could get Medicaid benefits for their loved ones. That's Paul Kersey, with the Illinois Policy Institute. He's speaking on behalf of Pam Harris, a Chicago are mom who takes care of her developmentally disabled son. She receives about 25-grand a year to do that at home rather than putting him in a state institution. Harris filed suit after Quinn signed an executive order forcing her and thousands of other homecare workers to become part of the union. She argued that was a violation of her constitutional rights. The Supreme Court agreed and ruled it's a violation of the workers' First Amendment right.