The United States Supreme Court has agreed to review a Seventh Circuit decision requiring non-union Illinois home health care workers serving Medicaid recipients to pay union fees.  Harris v. Quinn, No. 12-861, cert. granted 10/1/13.  Pursuant to a 2009 executive order and a collective bargaining agreement, the state of Illinois and SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana agreed that home health care workers must pay a “fair share” fee to the union that acts as their exclusive bargaining representative.  The home health care workers have asked the Supreme Court to determine whether compelling them to “accept and financially support a private organization as their exclusive representative to petition the State for greater reimbursements from its Medicaid program” violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.  The Petitioners argue that “[t]his case presents the extraordinary circumstance of citizens being forced to petition a state for more benefits from a public-aid program through an advocate of the state itself designated.”  The Respondents, on the other hand, argue that “the State of Illinois functions in all relevant respects as an employer of these home-care providers,” so that the constitutional petition issue is not truly presented.  We will watch this case and provide updates.