Discussion for article #244506
Well… They have to let the $money$ have it’s voice ----
Ralph Nader: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
It’s so perfect that Citizens United, along with Sam Alito and John Roberts, the two GWB justices who made it possible, are the enduring legacies of the guy who spent his entire career complaining about the undue influence of money in American politics.
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OK…let them rule that way. Then solicit some corporate schlub to bitch about Corporate Donations ( that his work earns ) going to fund politics he disagrees with. It won’t happen.
This is another phase of GOP entrenchment. Destruction of what they think is a source of Democratic funding. That’s what the Scotus Conservatives are working on. GOP entrenchment. We live in the highest cost of living 3rd world joint in the world.
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HRC talked a long time ago about a vast right wing conspiracy destroying left wing causes and the politicians who represent them. She was right then though no one listened.
The Center for Individual Rights, which has organized the case but is little known outside Washington and right-of-center legal circles.
The center is backed financially by a number of prominent conservative foundations, and the case has generated considerable interest on the right. Conservative organizations and politicians, some of whom have received funding from Koch Industries and Charles and David Koch, have submitted more than one dozen amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs.
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Well, if the Supreme’s rule against the unions, then I guess there needs to be a contract for union members and no contract for non-union members. Only union members, then, will get union benefits and protections. Maybe then people will understand how unions help workers. maybe.
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What a bunch of Koch-sucking, welfare queens these plantiffs are?! They want something for nothing!
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Money isn’t speech. Problem solved.
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Not only did they not believe her, they made fun of her for saying it. That’s the way the right-wing works. Anything or anyone who makes a true statement about how the right is organized or the ways they are hurting the 99% are mocked and belittled.
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Not only are you absolutely right, but it could well become a much healthier union environment. If only union members get the collectively bargained wage increases, then we will see how popular unions quickly become. But, there will need to be statutory changes in state law to get there, and those changes will have to prevent non-union members from getting the collectively bargained wages through some type of back door process.
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That’s how it’s actually been in the jobs I’ve had that had union representation. It was certainly true when I worked at the U.S. Postal Service. The union wouldn’t do squat for you if you weren’t a member.
Well, that’s not entirely true. The rep would take the time to call you a scab.
(and to @littlegirlblue) Yup; it’s called “defunding the left,” and it’s a long-time project:
And lest anyone think that’s just some lefty paranoid fantasy, here’s one of the more prominent “respectable” right-wing blogs:
So to second @bluestatedon: thanks, Ralph.
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Why do we even bother with Supreme Court cases? Instead, just ask whether something (1) aids business, (2) screws the little people, and/or (3) hurts Democrats, and you know damned well what the outcome will be.
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This is one of those cases–all too frequent in recent years–that makes me ashamed to be a lawyer. These are cases in which legal reasoning is totally divorced from real life, often to reach a pre-ordained conclusion (what we lawyers call result-oriented jurisprudence). They are the cases that make me think of Anatole France’s epigram that “The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich and the poor to sleep under bridges.”
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This will backfire right in the non-union whiner’s faces!
All the unions have to do is write in their contracts with whoever they are doing business with is to have a 2 tier union!
One union for union members with pay and health benefits, the other for non-union members who receive squat no health insurance low pay and on and on!
Boy would the right and non-union whiners be whining then!
Joe Blow makes $50+ an hour (which includes all his union benefits) while Willy Whiner makes minimum wage, with no benefits doing the same job!
I recall a time in Pensacola many years back, when there was a white longshoreman’s union and a black longshoreman union!
Of course people will elect not to pay dues. And will expect the same level of representation.
And if you don’t provide it, you can be hauled before a labor board for failure to represent.
And this is what they call conservative. It would be laughable were it not so tragic.
As soon as they took it you knew it was over for that situation. The conservative block does not like Unions at all and the free rider issue is not their concern.
It is pretty safe to say that this is the most pro-business court that may have ever been consistently. This is not as much to do with it but conservatives will be pleased. One thing you have to say for the conservative movement is that they find their boogie men and crush them. The Dems are fools for not doing more to support it.
Corporations are people and have rights but workers not so much.
Shoulda voted in your Local’s elections.
Meanwhile, my tax dollars help pay Supreme Justices, who are not elected.
Which will really quickly result in no unions as employers gradually force out all of the union employees for the cheaper non-union ones. Having ever belonged to a union will be a black mark against you when applying for jobs where this dichotomy exists.