Early
next year the Supreme Court will hear Knox v. SEIU Local
1000, an important case about union power and individual
conscience. The Cato Institute has joined several other organizations
in filing an amicus
brief (PDF), as my colleague Ilya Shapiro explains here
(snippage below)
In
2005, the SEIU initiated a mid-year campaign against two California
ballot measures, one that would cap state spending and another that
would restrict the use of union dues for political purposes. In states
such as California that do not have “right to work” laws, unions are
allowed to take dues from non-union workers to finance
collective-bargaining activities that, arguably, benefit all
employees. Since 1977, however, unions have not been allowed to
take dues from non-union members to pay for pure political advocacy
without adequate protections for possible dissenters.
To distinguish
political money from collective-bargaining money, the Supreme Court
requires that a “Hudson notice” be given to all non-union workers. This
notice gives non-members the opportunity to challenge political
expenditures. But when the SEIU began garnishing 25-33% more wages to
fight the California ballot initiatives, it issued no new Hudson
notice, effectively forcing 28,000 non-member employees to finance its
political speech.