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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."

1 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Encouraging lawlessness
Article Last Updated: 06/25/2007 12:04:07 AM MDT

It is perhaps not well enough known by the general public that when the Legislature passes a law, the bureaucracy has some autonomy in deciding how it will implement it.
That does not mean that agencies have the right to veto legislation. Unbelievably, The Tribune's editorial board was apparently condoning exactly that in its June 20 editorial. The editorial accuses members of the Legislature of being “control freaks” with “bruised egos” because they may want to punish the State Board of Education for refusing to implement the school voucher program.
In fact, the Legislature makes laws, and the bureaucracy implements them. The Utah Supreme Court should have stood by the Legislature instead of encouraging lawlessness. Just because the Board of Education is nonpolitical does not mean it operates under a different set of rules. It is not its own Legislature. The Utah Legislature would be correct to punish the board in order to ensure order in government.
The general public needs to realize that the more discretionary power bureaucracies have, the less power the public has to change anything. We elect legislatures, not bureaucracies.

Bethany Conner
Provo

6/26/2007 11:59 AM  

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