I know this has nothing to do with illegal immigration, however, it is VERY important! It is TOTALLY unfair for an employees dues to be used to endorse a candidate without the employees input!

As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide next Monday, September 25, whether or not they will review the case we have pursued for ten years: Do union officials have the right to remove money from union members’ and non-union members’ paychecks to pay for union-endorsed politics, even when the employee has not given permission to do so when they have said no? In a 6-3 decision, our state Supreme Court ruled that the union does have this right. Because the justices used the U.S. Constitution as part of their reasoning (incredible!), we have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. Attorney General McKenna is appealing on behalf of the state, and a companion case (Davenport) rests alongside it as well.

Union officials have purposely kept quiet about this case. It suits their interests to describe it incorrectly as a parochial issue brought by right-wing extremists who hate public schools. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, this is a First Amendment rights issue *the ramifications of which will eventually affect every union member in this country.

To raise the profile of the case, we have worked very, very hard to contact east coast media, write op-eds, do dozens of radio shows, etc. Yesterday, Mike Reitz, our Labor Policy Center Director, was in Washington, D.C., briefing this issue at the National Press Club. We have received favorable press, but most of the big media players are waiting to see what the high court does before they feature it. (Some have told us they are already working on their articles).

Attached is a picture of an ad that ran today in USA Today. The ad blanketed several major population centers on the east coast and reached nearly 300,000 people in the New York and D.C. markets. Since the ad won’t appear here at home, we thought you’d like to see it. We’ve also published a case background booklet. Click here to download a PDF copy: http://www.effwa.org/files/pdf/reader-handbook.pdf.

We cannot allow such erosion of our First Amendment free speech protections, so whether we win or lose on Monday (we may not hear until the following week), we have a strategy for the next step. You have helped us get this far. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the big day. Thank you!

Lynn Harsh
CEO of Evergreen Freedom Foundation