Republicans were handed a harsh reminder of how our country s judicial system works when the Supreme Court deadlocked in a 4-4 tie over a crucial union dues ruling. The court s non-ruling serves only to affirm the lower court ruling that teachers who enjoy union benefits are required to pay union dues.The case involves public employee unions only, an increasingly sharp thorn in the sides of Republican governors embroiled in battles over  right to work  laws, which translate to  right to fire people for trying to organize.  This ruling, or lack thereof, strikes a serious blow to Republican lawmakers looking to scrape money from education and public works budgets to give to their corporate cronies as rewards for doing business in their states contibuting to their campaigns.That s the immediate result of a 4-4 tie that probably would have happened anyway, since it s unlikely that a nominee would have been confirmed this quickly, but it highlights the kinds of issues that not just Republicans but all Americans will face as the branch of government given constitutional authority to decide in all cases of equity and law sits broken.That s just about where the silver lining on this particular cloud ends. While the case was almost certain to fail had Scalia not passed away, the absence of a definitive ruling on the matter also means an absence of precedence. Had the ruling come before a full court with a new liberal or even centrist judge like Merrick Garland on the bench, the lower court s decision on the matter could have been affirmed and erased all right to work laws under the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a political ploy to silence public employees like teachers, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, higher-education faculty and other educators to work together to shape their profession,  said National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garc a. The court, unsure if they will see a 9th justice any time soon, hasn t called for the case to be re-heard.Featured image via Getty Images