Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 in support of an Idaho law banning unions from collecting PAC contributions through payroll deductions.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed the obvious:

The First Amendment prohibits government from “abridging the freedom of speech”; it does not confer an affirmative right to use government payroll mechanisms for the purpose of obtaining funds for expression. Idaho’s law does not restrict political speech, but rather declines to promote that speech by allowing public employee checkoffs for political activities.

It isn’t immediately clear how the decision will affect other states, except it will very likely lead to the reestablishment of Utah’s paycheck protection law, the review of which was delayed by the U.S. 10th District Court of Appeals, pending the outcome of the Idaho case.

The Idaho Education Association declared itself “disappointed” in the ruling and suggested it would solicit PAC contributions through electronic transfer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 12:51 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.