Here, the case is moot because there is no reasonable likelihood that unions will seek to collect agency fees in the future because the Supreme Court settled the issue with no further ambiguity requiring future lower court rulings. The focus is not on how willingly a defendant changed course, but whether the defendant made the change unilaterally and whether they may “return to their old ways” later on. Voluntary cessation principles apply even when the defendant’s cessation is not entirely voluntary. The case was mooted after the United States Supreme Court had invalidated another state’s similar statute and all parties agreed that the Pennsylvania law was also unenforceable.
Pennsylvania State Education Association, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit deemed moot a dispute over a Pennsylvania statute that authorized local unions to deduct paycheck fees from non-unionized public school teachers.
