Cite as: 523 U. S. 866 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
challenged that determination.3 We therefore turn directly to the question presented: When a union adopts an arbitration process to comply with Hudson's "impartial decision-maker" requirement, must agency-fee objectors pursue and exhaust the arbitral remedy before challenging the union's calculation in a federal-court action?
In his concurring opinion in Hudson, Justice White ( joined by Chief Justice Burger) answered that question "yes." He stated: "[I]f the union provides for arbitration and complies with the other requirements specified in our opinion, it should be entitled to insist that the arbitration procedure be exhausted before resorting to the courts." 475 U. S., at 311. The Court's opinion did not comment on that unelaborated assertion, however, so the issue remains live for the decision we now reach. The Court of Appeals recognized that "Justice White raised a legitimate practical concern," but found "no legal basis for forcing into arbitration a party who never agreed to put his dispute over federal law to such a process." 108 F. 3d, at 1421 (emphasis in original). We agree, and decline to read Hudson as a decision that protects nonunion members at a cost—delayed access to federal court—they do not wish to pay.
ALPA urges extension of the discretionary exhaustion-of-remedies doctrine to agency-fee arbitration. See Brief for Petitioner 19 (citing McCarthy v. Madigan, 503 U. S. 140, 144 (1992) ("[W]here Congress has not clearly required exhaus-3 See Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Assn., 500 U. S. 507, 516 (1991) ("[T]he RLA cases necessarily provide some guidance regarding what the First Amendment will countenance in the realm of union support of political activities through mandatory assessments."); id., at 555 (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part) ("good reason to treat" statutory agency-fee cases as reflecting First Amendment principles articulated in Abood). But cf. Price v. International Union, UAW, 927 F. 2d 88, 92 (CA2 1991) (Hudson's "heightened procedural safeguards" do not apply to agency-fee cases involving private employers governed by the NLRA).
875
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