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February 08, 2007
Washington state planning to dodge SCOTUS?
You may recall the Washington paycheck protection case that made it to the Supreme Court last month. Based on a number of comments that were made by justices, it sounds like the law will be upheld. Well, it appears that the union has launched its contingency plan:
The state's largest teachers union is pushing legislation that would, in effect, allow unions to spend fees paid by nonmembers on political campaigns without first getting permission.
The bills, drafted by the Washington Education Association (WEA) and other labor groups, were introduced Wednesday in the House and Senate by a handful of Democratic lawmakers.
Union leaders say they are merely trying to clarify a confusing statute.
But critics said the union is attempting an end-run on the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing the constitutionality of a Washington law that required unions to get permission before spending nonmember fees on political causes.
Remember that the law in dispute, I-134, is a voter initiative approved overwhelmingly way back in 1992. With that in mind, I like this part best [emphasis added]:
The legislation includes a so-called "emergency clause," which means it would go into effect right away and could not be overturned by a voter referendum.
The apparent moral to this story: if you don't like the will of the people or the expected ruling of the highest court in the land, the obvious answer is to pass a law that overrules all of them. At this point, I honestly wonder if the WEA's audacity has any bounds at all. Fifteen years later, the union is still doing whatever it can to disregard the direct will of the people, even if it has to push legislation which will have the effect of canceling out both that voter-approved initiative and an expected Supreme Court decision.
As you might imagine, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (which has been behind the lawsuit) is all over this, with a press release, blog post and podcast.
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Comments
As an EFF member, I've been doing quite a bit of blogging about this to support the guys in EFF HQ. On top of the reasons you blogged, I think this is horrible because now every public servant must wonder if the legislature will have the integrity to stand behind them if they enforce the law against any donor to state legislative campaigns.
Posted by: SVC Alumnus | February 8, 2007 02:51 PM
