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**Written by Doug Powers

There will be no ruling on Obamacare or the Arizona immigration law today, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any SCOTUS-related news. This morning, Big Labor’s already bad year took another hit:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that unions must give nonmembers an immediate chance to object to unexpected fee increases or special assessments that all workers are required to pay in closed-shop situations.

The court ruled for Dianne Knox and other nonmembers of the Service Employees International Union’s Local 1000, who wanted to object and opt out of a $12 million special assessment the union required from its California public sector members for political campaigning. Knox and others said the union did not give them a legally required notice that the increase was coming.

The union, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the annual notice that the union gives was sufficient. The high court disagreed in a 7-2 judgment written by Justice Samuel Alito.

The “there goes that slim right-wing wacko majority” option is off the table of excuses, because this SCOTUS smackdown of the Ninth Circus was a 7-2 ruling. Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg both voted with the majority, but wrote their own opinion.

From the ruling: “The First Amendment does not permit a union to extract a loan from unwilling nonmembers.”

Catch all the Twitter reaction here.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe