(AgapePress) - - An organization that represents state legislatures across the United States is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Washington State law that requires unions to obtain prior consent from teachers before using their mandatory dues money for political purposes.
In Washington State, 72 percent of the voters approved a campaign finance law for the state in 1992. The new law required unions like the Washington Education Association (WEA) to obtain annual, written permission form its members before making payroll deductions for dues that would be used to fund political efforts. The WEA had been fined nearly $600,000 for knowingly violating the 1992 law.
In March, however, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling declaring the law unconstitutional because it placed an undue administrative burden on unions. Now, the American Legislative Exchange Council has filed a friend of the court brief in favor of thousands of non-union teachers who are forced to pay dues.
Matt Warner, the American Legislative Exchange Council's Education Task Force Director, believes the case is going to have an impact on how states debate the issue of union dues and non-member union payments. For that reason, he says the Council "thought it was important that we support urging the Supreme Court to review this case and to recognize the First Amendment issues involved."
Teachers should be "free to work without worrying about losing their hard-earned money to political activities they do not support," Warner contends. However, he notes, "There's a lot at stake. The unions know that they need to protect the status quo."
And the status quo as far as the unions are concerned, the Council spokesman explains, is "that the default is that you support them, and then you have to go out of your way to get your money back." He believes the WEA and unions like it are more concerned with protecting the bottom line than they are in protecting the teachers they represent.
The American Legislative Exchange Council is among a coalition of groups asking the Supreme Court to prohibit the WEA from using teachers' dues money for political activism without the teachers' permission. The high court is expected to decide in October whether or not it will take the case.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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