An important ruling even if the state of Washington’s Democrats axed the law, which would have required unions to get the permission of dues-paying members before using their money for political activism

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

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

The justices said that a state could indeed require such consent. But there also is nothing to bar the state from putting the onus on nonmember workers to opt out, or seek a refund of a portion of their fees.

This is what’s going on: Currently, in the state of Washington, if you work in a unionized labor force you are compelled to pay union dues whether you want to or not.  The reasoning behind this, for better or worse, is that if you work in a job pool that is unionized you should have to pay for the work the union does on your behalf to increase wages, etc. even if you never asked the union to do that for you.  The problem many workers have, however, is that a lot of the dues they pay go for political advocacy that really has nothing to do for their jobs.  Like a factory worker’s dues being used to advocate against school vouchers, for instance.  Or to support a specific political party or candidate

The workers are saying that their mandatory dues shouldn’t go to political causes they don’t support.  And they’ve got a point, so Washington Republicans put together a bill requiring the unions to get the permission of their members before spending dues money on political advocacy

The unions, as you might expect, teamed up with the other big liberal special interest group (the trial lawyers) and sued, claiming that this requirement was a violation of the unions’ free speech rights.  Because, you know, the unions have a right to spend other people’s money any way they want.  Or something like that

The case ultimately ended up in front of the Supreme Court and the unions lost.  And the workers won

Of course, Washington’s Democrats (as I’ve already pointed out) have changed the law so the unions can go on spending the dues workers are forced to pay on political advocacy a lot of the workers don’t support.  Which is liberalism at work for you.  The libs always expect other people to pay for their beliefs

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