Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon explains how a Donald Trump Supreme Court appointment could mean bad news for labor unions.

The National Right to Work Foundation and its legal arm has a number of cases at various stages of federal courts that could overturn long-standing practices of forced dues among public and private sector workers.

“The impact of Trumps’ Supreme Court appointments when it comes to labor cases will be huge,” foundation spokesman Patrick Semmens said. “If Trump nominates the type of justice he promised on the campaign trail, millions of teachers, first responders, and other government employees would finally be free to decide for themselves if they want to join and pay dues to a union.”

Labor watchdogs are not the only ones fighting over unionization standards in federal courts. Several unions across Wisconsin, West Virginia, and other states that recently passed right to work have argued that the legislation violates the Constitution because unions are forced to represent and bargain on behalf of workers who do not pay dues.

Trey Kovacs, a labor policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he expects that the court will once again take up the question of whether government agencies can require union membership as a condition of employment.

“There are several union challenges to right to work. I think that’s one issue to watch out for. If he [Trump] appoints a judge similar to Scalia, right to work is going to be the law of the land,” Kovacs said.

The Supreme Court deadlocked on the constitutionality of coercive dues payments in the wake of Scalia’s death in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The case, brought by a California elementary school teacher, challenged a three-decade precedent set by the court in Abood (1977), which allowed schools and government agencies to require union membership as a condition of employment. Friedrichs’ attorneys from the Center for Individual Rights argued that forced dues and agency fees violated teachers’ free speech rights because they were compelled to support an organization that was inherently political.

CIR president Terry Pell told the Washington Free Beacon he was “optimistic” about the message Trump sent when he released his list of potential Supreme Court replacements.