U.S. Supreme Court hears Washington union-fee case

The Seattle Times ^ | January 10, 2007 | Mark Sherman, AP

[jazusamo]

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices indicated today they are inclined to uphold a Washington state law preventing unions from using fees they get from workers for political activities.

The case involves a few thousand teachers and other education employees who are in the bargaining unit and thus represented by the more than 70,000-member Washington Education Association — but who have chosen not to join the union.

Workers can't be forced to join or pay for the union's political activism, but they can be charged a fee for labor negotiations that affect them.

The narrow issue before the justices is whether, as Washington law prescribed, employees must opt in, or affirmatively consent, to having some of their money used in election campaigns.

The Washington Supreme Court struck down the law, saying the union's offer to reduce fees for any nonmember who registers an objection to the political spending was sufficient.

[jazusamo]

Washington state ping.

[Quix]

Lord, God, please help the Supremes do the rationial patriotic sane thing!

[BADROTOFINGER]

WA Ping...JFK

[4woodenboats]

The Stalinist Times article was crap. Our State Supremes ruled that it would be too inconvenient to seperate funds from members who did not want their dues spent exclusively on Democrat candidates.

ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND

In 1992, voters in Washington State approved Initiative 134 by nearly 73 percent, thereby requiring that agency fee payers individually authorize the union to use their dues for politics.

Despite the clear wording of the law, the Washington Education Association continued to spend dues on politics without asking for permission. After hearing from a number of teachers, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation filed a complaint against the WEA in 2000.

After an investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission, the WEA admitted to “multiple violations” of the law, and Attorney General Christine Gregoire filed a lawsuit against the union in October 9, 2000. Ruling that the WEA “intentionally” ignored the law, Thurston County Superior Court imposed a $590,375 penalty on the union July 31, 2001.

The WEA appealed the case to Washington’s Court of Appeals. In a 2-1 ruling on June 24, 2003, the court ruled that portions of I-134 violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, saying the First Amendment free speech rights of union official supersedes the First Amendment free speech rights of teachers.

On appeal to the state Supreme Court, the WEA again argued the law was unconstitutional, and the Court agreed. Former Justice Faith Ireland wrote that requiring unions to ask permission before spending nonmember dues on political activity was “too heavy an administrative burden.”

In the meantime, several teachers, represented by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed a class action lawsuit against the WEA to recover their misspent dues (Davenport v. WEA). This case was consolidated with the state’s case against the union and dismissed by the Washington Supreme Court. Both cases are being appealed.

***********

U.S. Supreme Court cases Washington v. Washington Education Association, No. 05-1657 Davenport, et al, v. Washington Education Association, No. 05-1589

The consolidated state case: Washington State Supreme Court No. 74268-5 - State ex rel. Public Disclosure Commission v. Washington Education Association

Washington State Supreme Court No. 74316-9 - Gary Davenport, et al., v. Washington State Education Association

RCW 42.17.760 - Agency shop fees as contributions. A labor organization may not use agency shop fees paid by an individual who is not a member of the organization to make contributions or expenditures to influence an election or to operate a political committee, unless affirmatively authorized by the individual.

http://www.teachers-vs-union.org/background.html

Labor Policy Center PO Box 552 Olympia, WA 98507, Telephone: 360-956-3482, Email: mreitz@effwa.org © Copyright EFF 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[California Patriot]

Excellent news.

[jmaroneps37]

This is a direct result of voting Republican. Had enough people not voted Republican in past elections, we would not have gotten this court. Now we get the benefit of our votes.
This will be a big blow to the ratunions.

[jazusamo]

Thanks for your excellent post.

I knew much of that but it would have taken many hours of research to come up with it.

[jazusamo]

Agreed. It looks like SCOTUS is going to slap down the Washington supremes, it's long overdue.

[4woodenboats]

You're welcome.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation is the 1st place I look to for the straight poop on the state's poop

They're an outstanding watchdog group, and the socialists running this state hate 'em in a big way.

Left wing sites such as misnomered mediatransparency.org (started/funded by cursor.org, a Bill Moyers company, and devoted to maligning anything conservative) have shown their fear of EFF and have gone on the attack, so you know EFF making a positive difference.