Hartnett was the named party in a group of public-school teachers, who challenged a Pennsylvania statute that authorized their local unions to deduct fees from their paychecks even though the teachers did not belong to the union. After the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a similar statute in a different state, the parties agreed that PA’s law was unenforceable. Therefore, the District Court ruled that the case was moot. The teachers appealed to the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit affirmed, holding that the case was moot because there was no reasonable likelihood that the unions would seek to collect agency fees in the future.
