Unanimous SCOTUS: States can curb union use of dues for politics

By Jim Stergios
June 14th, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously supported the right of states to require unions to get permission from members before spending dues on political activities.

The case, Davenport v. Washington Education Association (WEA), was brought by Gary Davenport and thousands more non-union Washington teachers.  They had opposed the unions chiefs’ use of their dues to support candidates and campaigns. 

Important to note is that SCOTUS did not get into the larger question of whether union brass can automatically collect forced dues for politics from nonunion members in the first place. So if public employees are hoping to free themselves of compulsory dues — not happening.  Check out the decision here at the SCOTUSblog.  (Even they have one, so it is decidedly not cool anymore.)