⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

Oregon transportation employee Staci Trees challenges union dues taken from her paychecks after she tried to resign. SEIU Local five oh three relied on a 2016 electronic membership card that limited when dues deductions could end. Trees says her signature was forged. She sued the union and state officials in federal court. The union then brought an unfair-labor-practice proceeding before Oregon's Employment Relations Board. The board dismissed the union's charges but found that Trees had signed the card. The federal judge treated that finding as binding and dismissed her claims against the union. That is issue preclusion: a decided issue may not be litigated again when the required conditions, including a full and fair opportunity to contest it, are met. Her constitutional claims invoke Section nineteen eighty-three, a federal law providing a remedy for rights violations committed under state authority. The appeal asks whether preclusion was properly applied and whether she can seek an order against future deductions, which have already stopped.

Trees v. Service Employees International Union Local 503, OPEU, et al. (No. 25-1155) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, argued September 16, 2026.