882
Breyer, J., dissenting
This Court has interpreted the relevant labor statutes, in light of the Constitution's requirements, as requiring procedures that "protect both" these "interests to the maximum extent possible without undue impingement of one on the other." Street, supra, at 773 (emphasis added). Indeed, Hudson itself makes clear that procedural requirements " 'must' " seek as their " 'objective' " to " 'preven[t] compulsory subsidization of ideological activity by employees who object thereto without restricting the Union's ability to require every employee to contribute to the cost of collective-bargaining activities.' " 475 U. S., at 302 (quoting Abood, supra, at 237) (emphasis added). The mandatory, but non-binding, arbitration requirement at issue here satisfies these objectives, for it amounts to a reasonable elaboration of Hudson's own mandate: that the Union provide "a reasonably prompt opportunity to challenge the amount of the fee before an impartial decisionmaker." 475 U. S., at 310.
First, consider the matter from the Union's perspective. The "arbitration first" requirement seems reasonable because it lowers the costs of resolving agency fee disputes and makes their resolution manageable. As this case illustrates, different groups of nonmember dissenters with different motivations for objecting may proceed in different forums. Without the "arbitration first" rule, they might do so simultaneously. Judge and arbitrator, perhaps subject to different discovery requests, obtaining somewhat different information, hearing different arguments, operating under different rules of procedure and evidence, and exercising different judgments (each without knowledge of the other), could well determine differently costs and complex expenditure relationships, thereby reaching different, even conflicting, conclusions. Amicus National Education Association says that this "would be the most expensive and burdensome system imaginable." Brief for National Education Association as Amicus Curiae 14. Amicus AFL-CIO adds that the "costs of defending such litigation" (which may involve no
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