FREEDOM MATTERS

The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled on June 14, 2007: “It is not a violation of the First Amendment for a state to bar a labor union representing government employees from using non-union workers' dues for political causes if those workers have not explicitly consented.”

The decision overturned prior decisions of the Washington state supreme court in two cases, “Washington versus Washington Education Association” (05-1589) and “Davenport versus Washington Education Association” (05-1657), in which the Washington state supreme court ruled that public school educator unions could use mandatory dues of union members for political purposes they did not agree to.

The United States Supreme Court said no in a unanimous ruling written by senior Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin G. Scalia, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and agreed by all U.S. Supreme Court members.

Woomba. Freedom matters.

The Court ruled that it is not a violation of the First Amendment for a state to bar a labor union representing government employees from using non-union workers' dues for political causes if those workers have not explicitly consented.

At issue in the case was a Washington state statute that required labor organizations to get permission from nonmember workers before using mandatory dues for political purposes

Union non-members are public school workers who have said they do not want to be forcibly made members of the union and to have dues forcibly collected from their paychecks – mostly by the National Education association, American Federation of Teachers, and state and local affiliates that combine with local public education entities in collective bargaining agreements for all public school employees.

The WEA admitted multiple violations during a state investigation and was fined over $590,000 by a Thurston County court in Washington state, later claiming in  state courts that the union had no 'fiduciary responsibility' to its members and that the law unconstitutionally ‘burdened’ its free speech rights.

The Washington Supreme Court agreed with the union but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling.

Let’s face it: Unions are socialist collectivist enterprises that exist just for their own self-interest. Their officers at all levels receive obscenely high pay and benefits at the expense of union members. Democrat more than Republican politicians cow-tow to these union people, who have vehemently opposed school improvement measures such as President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act to force more rigor into  taxpayer-fundedAmerican public education from kindergarten through 12th grade.

John Adams, America’s first vice-president and second president, who advised Thomas Jefferson on wording of the U.S.  Declaration of Independence, said in 1774 in his personal handwritten diary: “I wander alone, and ponder. I muse. I mope, I ruminate. We have not men fit for the times. We are deficient in genius, education, in travel –- in everything. I feel unutterable anxiety.”

Yet John Adams went on to become one of America’s greatest statesmen, telling Thomas Jefferson in his retiring years, “I walk every fair day, sometimes three and four miles. Ride now and the but rarely more than ten or fifteen miles.”

John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson in one of many letters between the two men over many years: “Who shall write the history of the American Revolution? Who can write it? Who will ever be able to write it?”

Good question. It’s still an unfolding story these days with global implications. Freedom matters.