INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ A federal appeals court has upheld Indiana's right-to-work law banning mandatory union fees in a split decision.
Two judges on the three-member panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the state law doesn't wrongfully take property from unions and is constitutional. But Chief Judge Diane Wood dissented, writing that federal labor law “does not support such sweeping force for Indiana's right-to-work law.''
The Indiana Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Thursday on a pair of cases challenging the law on state constitutional grounds. Indiana became the first Rust Belt state to approve a right-to-work law in 2012.
The legislative fight drew thousands of union protesters to the Statehouse in 2011 and 2012, in one of the state's most divisive and drawn-out debates.
