Unions Lose on Political Fee Issue (Supreme Court Ruling)

Houston Chronicle (AP) ^ | 6/14/2007 | Mark Sherman

[Pyro7480]

WASHINGTON — States may force public sector labor unions to get consent from workers before using their fees for political activities, the Supreme Court said Thursday.

The court unanimously upheld a Washington state law that applied to public employees who choose not to join the union that represents them in contract talks with state and local governments. The workers are compelled to pay the equivalent of union dues, a portion of which the union uses for political activities.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said the law does not violate the union's First Amendment rights.

But the state's Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled legislature recently changed the law to eliminate the provision that was upheld Thursday, blunting the impact of the court ruling.

[Pyro7480]

Interesting...

[Lurker]

Just reinforcing the Beck decision.

L

[Phlap]

So the dems change of the law in against the law?

[maine-iac7]

Can you envision the huge loss of demRat campaign funds if workers - including millions of republicans - could refuse to have money stolen from them for democrat use?What a gigantic loss of revenue =

for years, they have stolen money from republican workers to fund the democratic party. about time for this to end.

[P-40]

States may force public sector labor unions to get consent from workers before using their fees for political activities

It is hard to believe that in this free country you have to force democracy on a group that claims to represent its members. Funny stuff.

[ghost of nixon]

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said the law does not violate the union's First Amendment rights

do unions even have First Amendment rights?

[brityank]

do unions even have First Amendment rights?

Yes; thanks to the misapplied stare decisis rulings allowing for corporations to have the same standing as a human in court.

[proudpapa]

But the state’s Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled legislature recently changed the law...

We desperately need a revolution in this country.

[IMRight]

Unions Lose on Political Fee Issue (Supreme Court Ruling)

That means the Wisconsin Right to Life ruling (now pending) is just about a sure thing.

[Gritty]

[Elsiejay]

Persons have rights, and in some legalistic sense a labor union can be considered a “person,” just as are other incorporated entities (e.g., business firms).
However, a labor union’s free speech rights are not at all constrained in any legal or constitutional sense by their being denied free rein to spend their members’ dues monies for partisan political purposes.

[jmaroneps37]

Better late than never. Of course if the Republican senate had enforced Beck when it had the chance we would be so much better off.

[boop]

"But the state’s Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled legislature recently changed the law... We desperately need a revolution in this country"

It's even worse than that. Not only did WA state pass the law, they then passed a law stating the people CAN'T overturn it with a referendum. So unions are more important and have more rights than individuals under WA law. I don't understand how WA can pass the law anyway. Didn't the USSC rule it illegal? What do I not understand?

[ChurtleDawg]

well, according to SCOTUS, corporations do

[California Patriot]

We are headed for tyranny in this country. A good indicator of that is what the Democrats do when they control a state legislature plus the governorship.

[AFPhys]

The tyranny WA Democrats demonstrated in this is also a good indicator of what Demodogs will do in Washington DC when they next control both houses of Congress plus the presidency.

We better all get our act together here soon.

[California Patriot]

Yes. That’s why I have such contempt for FReepers who are willing to let Hillary be president because they hate Rudy. Rudy isn’t great by a long shot. But if he’s the nominee, we must support him. Otherwise, we will lose the country, period.

[hoosierham]

Well,I’ll give you Rudy does look better in a dress than Hillary.

[California Patriot]

Don’t clutter this thread with this irrelevant krap. If you can address my point substantively, do that. If you can’t, don’t respond.