The U.S. flag flies in front of the Supreme Court in Washington.

A case that will soon be heard before the Supreme Court has the potential to institute a de facto right-to-work regime across the public sector. The court said on Tuesday it will hear arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA), a case concerning government employee unions’ ability to gather fees from nonmembers.

Rebecca Friedrichs is a California public school teacher who has opted out of the CTA and argues the union should not be able to charge her representation fees. In California, as in half the other states in the country, unions may charge what are sometimes caSeattle University School of Law professor Charlotte Garden said it was possible Alito originally intended to overturn Abood in his Harris decision but had to issue a more limited ruling after he failed to garner the support of a court majority.

“I think that’s why he wrote it the way he did — pages and pages of criticizing Abood and then shifting,” said Garden.

That does not make the court’s ruling in Friedrichs a foregone conclusion. But even its decision to hear the case has labor leaders extremely nervous.

“America can’t build a strong future if people can’t come together to improve their work and their families’ futures. Moms and dads across the country have been standing up in the thousands to call for higher wages and unions,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the president of the National Education Association, in a statement on Tuesday. “We hope the Supreme Court heeds their voices.”lled fair share fees to nonunion employees in the workplaces they represent.