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III
As a result of the Lehnert Court’s failure to find a majority as to the chargeability of national litigation expenses, the lower courts have been uncertain about the matter. Compare Otto, 330 F. 3d,at138,with Pilots Against Illegal Dues, 938 F. 2d,at 1130–1131. Having examined the question further, we now believe that, consistent with the Court’s precedent, costs of that litigation are chargeable provided the litigation meets the relevant standards for charging other national expenditures that the Lehnert majority enunciated. Under those standards, a local union may charge a nonmember an appropriate share of its contribution to a national’s litigation expenses if (1) the subject matter of the national litigation bears an appropriate relation to collective bargaining and (2) the arrangement is reciprocal—that is, the local’s payment to the national affiliate is for “services that may ultimately inure to the benefit of the members of the local union by virtue of their membership in the parent organization.” 500 U. S., at 524.
We reach this conclusion in part because logic suggests that the same standard should apply to national litigation expenses as to other national expenses. We can find no significant difference between litigation activities and other national activities the cost of which this Court has found chargeable. We can find no sound basis for holding that national social activities, national convention activities, and activities involved in producing the nonpolitical portions of national union publications all are chargeable but national litigation activities are not. See Ellis, 466 U. S., at 448–451. Of course, a local nonmember presumably has the right to attend, and consequently can directly benefit from, national social and convention activities; and a local nonmember can read, and benefit from, a national publication. But so can a local nonmember benefit from national litigation aimed at helping other units if the national or those other units will similarly contribute to the cost of litigation on the local union’s behalf should the need arise.
The petitioners’ arguments to the contrary rest primarily upon their understanding of Ellis and Lehnert. Ellis, we must concede, sets forth certain kinds of national litigation—for the most part directly related to a local union’s particular interests—as chargeable; but it then goes on to say, as we have earlier pointed out, ante,at 6–7, that “expenses of litigation not having such a connection with the bargaining unit are not to be charged to objecting employees.” 466 U. S., at 453. Nonetheless, as the Court of Appeals noted, the Ellis Courtfocused upon a local union’s payment of national litigation expenses without any understanding as to reciprocity. Indeed, Justice Kennedy pointed out in his Lehnert dissent, “Ellis . . . contains no discussion of whether a bargaining unit might choose to fund litigation . . . through a cost sharing arrangement under the auspices of the affiliate.” 500 U. S., at 564 (opinion concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part). Ellis nowhere explains why reciprocal litigation funding arrangements would fail to benefit a local union. Hence, Ellis does not answer the question presented here.
We must also concede that a plurality in Lehnert wrote that national litigation expenses were not chargeable “[w]henunrelated to an objecting employee’s unit.” 500 U. S.,at 528. But, again, reciprocal litigation funding was not before the Court; hence the plurality could not (and did not) decide whether an understanding as to reciprocity produced the relationship necessary for chargeability. Regardless, a plurality does not speak for the Court as a whole.
Nor can one simply add together the four Lehnert dissenters and the four Members of the plurality in an effort to find a majority of Justices who hold the petitioners’ view. That is because the Lehnert majority, speaking for the Court, adopted a more liberal standard of chargeability than the standard embraced by the dissent. And the question here is whether that standard permits charging nonmembers for national litigation expenses. There was no majority agreement in Lehnert about the answer to this last mentioned question. The best we can do for the petitioners is to find Lehnert ambiguous on the point at issue.
IV
Applying Lehnert’sstandard to the national litigation expenses here at issue, we find them chargeable. First, the kind of national litigation activity for which the local charges nonmembers concerns only those aspects of collective bargaining, contract administration, or other matters that the courts have held chargeable. Ellis, supra, at 446–447. The lower courts found (and the petitioners here do not dispute) that the local charges nonmembers only for those national litigation activities that, in respect to subject matter, “were comparable to those undertaken” by the local and which the local “deemed chargeable” in its calculation of the “service fee.” 498 F. 3d, at 52, 64–65. And no one here denies that under Lehnert this kind of activity bears an appropriate relation to collective bargaining. See, e.g., Lehnert, 500 U. S., at 519; see also id., at 524 (“[A] local bargaining representative may charge objecting employees for their pro rata share of costs associated with otherwise chargeable activities of its state and national affiliates … ”).
Second, the location of the litigation activity is at the national (or extraunit), not the local, level. But, as we have just said (under Lehnert),activity at the national level is chargeable as long as the charges in question are “for services that may ultimately inure to the benefit of the members of the local union by virtue of their membership in the parent organization.” Ibid.
The Court of Appeals treated the litigation charge at issue as reciprocal in nature, and concluded the District Court must have done so as well. See 498 F. 3d, at 64–65. The local union here says that the payment of its affiliation fee gives locals in general access to the national’s financial resources—compiled via contributions from various locals—“which would not otherwise be available to the local union when needed to effectively negotiate, administer or enforce the local’s collective bargaining agreements.” Brief for Respondents 18–19. The resources in question include resources related to litigation. No one claims that the national would treat the local union before us any differently, in terms of making these resources available, than the national would treat any other local. The petitioners do not suggest the contrary. And we consequently conclude, as did the lower courts, that the existence of reciprocity is assumed by the parties and not here in dispute.
The record then leads us to find that the national litigation expenses before us are both appropriately related to collective bargaining and reciprocal. Consequently, consistent with our precedent, those expenses are chargeable. The similar determination of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
555 U. S. ____ (2009)
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
DANIEL B. LOCKE, et al., PETITIONERS v. EDWARD
A. KARASS, STATE CONTROLLER, et al.
on writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the first circuit

[January 21, 2009]

Justice Alito, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Scalia join, concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court but write separately to note that our decision, as I understand it, does not reach the question of what “reciprocity” means. Petitioners have taken an all-or-nothing position, contending that non-members of a local may never be assessed for any portion of the national’s extraunit litigation expenses. See ante, at 4 (noting that petitioners “claimed that the First Amendment prohibits charging them for any portion of the service fee that represents what we have called ‘national litigation,’ i.e., litigation that does not directly benefit the local” (emphasis added)). The opinion correctly concludes, “as did the lower courts, that the existence of reciprocity is assumed by the parties and not here in dispute.” Ante, at 13.
Thus, this case does not require us to address what is meant by a charge being “reciprocal in nature,” or what showing is required to establish that services “ ‘may ultimately inure to the benefit of the members of the local union by virtue of their membership in the parent organization.’ ” Ante, at 12 (citing Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Assn., 500 U. S. 507, 524 (1991) ). I understand the Court’s opinion to conclude that the litigation expenses at issue here are chargeable only because the parties assumed that the benefit of any such expenses would be reciprocal.
In its brief as amicus curiae, the United States argues that a national union must bear the burden of proving that any expenditures charged to nonmembers of a local are made pursuant to a bona fide pooling arrangement. See Brief for United States 28–29. Once nonmembers object to a charge, the Government submits, the union must prove that the challenged expenditure was made pursuant to an arrangement that is akin to an insurance policy. See id., at 7. This is necessary, the Government contends, to ensure that a charge is in fact “reciprocal in nature.” Because important First Amendment rights are at stake, the Government’s argument regarding the burden of establishing true reciprocity has considerable force. Nonetheless, since petitioners in this case did not raise the question whether the Maine State Employees Association’s pooling arrangement was bona fide, we need not reach that question today.
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