Supreme Court: State can stop union political deductions

[Earth Bound Misfit]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJYa-V8wkGBqZjrLYRQ6YzGJgtxAD96I5LL04

By JESSE J. HOLLAND – 21 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a state law banning local governments from letting workers use payroll deductions to fund their union's political activities, a decision that could strike at organized labor's ability to raise funds at local levels.

Five labor unions and the Idaho state AFL-CIO successfully argued in lower federal courts that a 2003 Idaho law forcing cities, counties and school districts to eliminate a payroll deduction funding union political action committees violated the First Amendment.

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The unions did not appeal the elimination of the payroll deduction for state-level employees, and "we are aware of no case suggesting that a different analysis applies under the First Amendment depending on the level of government affected," said Roberts, who was joined in his opinion by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito.

"The ban on political payroll deductions furthers Idaho's interest in separating the operations of government from partisan politics," the chief justice said. "That interest extends to all public employers at whatever level of government."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a separate opinion, agreed with the majority, but for a different reason writing "that, in the context here, the Constitution compels no distinction between state and local governmental entities."

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Justices John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter dissented, saying the law was clearly aimed at stopping the political speech of unions.

The new language was placed inside a law "that deals with unions, the statute amended regulates unions, and all this legislation is placed in the state's labor law certification," Souter said. "Union speech and nothing else, seems to have been on the legislative mind."