Seattle Times
August 27^th, 1999

Teachers union wins court fight over political activity
By Linda Shaw, staff reporter

The Washington Education Association (WEA), the state's largest teachers union, won a significant battle yesterday against an attack on its political activities.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge William Thomas McPhee ruled that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), a conservative think tank in Olympia, failed to prove its case that the 68,000-member union should register as a political-action committee.

The WEA, one of the most powerful unions in the state, hailed the ruling, issued three months after the May trial, as a complete vindication that protects the free-speech rights of public-school employees, and their right to act collectively on public issues. The union charged that the lawsuit was politically motivated, aimed at weakening its influence.

"We've said from the beginning the EFF lawsuit was misguided and frivolous, and we won on every point," said WEA spokesman Rich Wood.

EFF spokesman Jami Lund said the foundation is likely to appeal.

"This is a green light for big special interests," said Bob Williams, EFF president. "The judge's ruling creates a huge loophole for big labor and big business to avoid public disclosure of political activities.

"The political power brokers beat the citizens in this round, but we believe the principles of free and fair elections will ultimately be upheld in a higher court."

Lund declined to say what his organization spent on the lawsuit, but Wood said the WEA spent well over $1 million. Wood also said the WEA will file a court motion asking that EFF reimburse the union for costs and attorneys fees.

At issue in the case was the WEA's activities during the 1996 election, in which it contributed more than $260,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to defeat Initiatives 173 and 177, and also solicited a $410,000 contribution from the National Education Association.

Initiative 173 would have allowed public-school parents to get government support for sending their children to private, nonreligious schools. Initiative 177 would have allowed the creation of charter schools.

At the heart of the case, however, was Initiative 134, the 1992 campaign-finance-reform law. In the lawsuit, filed on behalf of a handful of teachers, EFF challenged the union's use of mandatory dues for political campaigns, which the EFF says Initiative 134 prohibits. The EFF also argued the WEA has become so involved in campaigns that politics is one of its "primary purposes."

Under the law, if one of an organization's primary purposes is politics, it must register as a PAC, and can collect money only through voluntary donations.

In his ruling, McPhee said the purpose of the WEA is "to enhance the economic and professional security of its members." He also said that all public-sector labor unions participate in politics to support their members, which does not make them political committees. Instead, he said, "participation is a means by which the union achieves its purposes, just as contract negotiations and strikes are a means to that end."

McPhee also rejected the plaintiff's arguments that the amount of money spent on politics should be a determining factor in whether one of an organization's main purposes is political.

After Initiative 134 passed, the WEA set up a political-action committee, to which contributions are voluntary. But it also ended up paying a $430,000 fine in 1998 - then the largest in state history - for campaign-finance violations, including illegally collecting mandatory dues for something called the Community Outreach Program, which the state attorney general decided was a political committee as well.

The settlement agreement between the two parties stated the violations were unintentional.

The EFF, however, wasn't satisfied with the settlement because it stopped short of prohibiting the union from using any mandatory dues for politics.

Judge McPhee earlier ruled in the WEA's favor on that element of the case. That ruling is on appeal to the state Supreme Court.

When the three-week trial ended, both sides said they hoped McPhee's ruling would better define what constitutes a "political committee," a gray area of the law, so that other organizations could use it for guidance.

In his ruling, however, McPhee said that was a matter for appeals courts, and that his decision only binds the parties to this lawsuit.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org

Quotables:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." - John Stuart Mill