AP: “Public school districts cannot help unions by deducting political contributions from the paychecks of teachers, the Michigan Supreme Court said Thursday as conservatives reversed a six-month-old ruling by liberal justices….The Supreme Court issued a completely different opinion in late December, just before Democrats lost their 4-3 majority. Republicans agreed to reconsider the case when they took control of the court.'”Instead of preserving precedent, this newly comprised majority reverses this court’s previously issued opinion and issues its own opinion for no reason other than that it disagrees with the outcome of the prior opinion,’ said Justice Diane Hathaway in a dissent.”

You can read the opinion here.  From footnote 1 of the majority opinion: “The Chief Justice casts his vote in this case as justices have traditionally done, in accordance with their original vote in the underlying case, and our new justices, Justices MARY BETH KELLY and ZAHRA, also cast their vote as new justices have traditionally done, in accordance with their best understanding of the law. See, e.g., USF&G, in which Justice HATHAWAY herself cast a vote in this manner, and Duncan v Michigan, 488 Mich 957 (2010) (DAVIS, J., concurring), in which the fourth justice in support of the former majority opinion in this case also cast his vote in this manner. Justice HATHAWAY would apparently require the majority justices in this case to abide by an entirely different set of legal rules.”