canada goose store What public unions and gay marriage have in common
Canada Goose online The political fireworks in canada goose clearance Wisconsin, culminating in the recent unsuccessful recall election of canada goose the Republican governor, Scott Walker, have a lot of people saying good riddance to public sector unions. Last uk canada goose outlet year, Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature enacted Wisconsin Act 10, stripping most though crucially not all of the state’s public unions of their most fundamental powers, including collective bargaining and the ability to deduct dues from workers’ paychecks. Many observers and not only Republicans canada goose store have signaled their approval, cheap Canada Goose arguing that public unions representing teachers, bus drivers, healthcare workers shouldn’t exist in the first place.
canada goose “Public sector unions have reached their high water mark,” a Forbes columnist cheered last week. “Let the cleanup begin as the red ink recedes.”
buy canada goose jacket It turns out, however, that killing off public sector unions is a buy canada goose jacket cheap lot harder Canada Goose Parka than most people imagine. And, canada goose uk shop curiously, the reason is related to canada goose coats on sale recent court decisions about gay marriage. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The principle is equal protection under the law: If you allow same sex couples to marry as eight states and the District of Columbia now do you can’t economically discriminate against them (by denying the ability to file joint tax returns or withholding Social Security benefits) simply because they are not heterosexual.
canada goose deals A related principle holds for public sector unions. If you allow workers canada goose factory sale to join labor unions, there are significant legal limits to how much the cheap canada goose uk state can discriminate between “good” unions and “bad” unions. In other words, those that shouldn’t be quashed and those that can be. court struck down as unconstitutional key provisions of Wisconsin Act 10. And while we didn’t hear much about it through the din of the recall effort, a few weeks ago many of Wisconsin’s public unions returned to automatically deducting dues from their members paychecks.
canada goose black friday sale From a legal perspective, the Wisconsin law has something of an Achilles’ Canada Goose Outlet heel. It created an unprecedented distinction between “public safety” employees (basically police and firefighters) and “general” state employees (everybody else), and canada goose black friday sale did not restrict the organizing or collective bargaining abilities of unions in the former group. The stated rationale for this disparate treatment was that restricting the bargaining rights of police and firefighters might make it more likely for them to strike, which would threaten public safety. (This is a somewhat strange argument, particularly since Wisconsin already prohibits those workers from striking. It has been widely noted that police and firefighters’ unions are the only ones in the state that back Walker politically, and even his supporters acknowledge that the law was unlikely to pass without those the backing of those unions.)
Canada Goose Parka Regardless, creating two classes of labor unions is a legal minefield, just as two classes of marriage uk canada goose is. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin threw out two of three contested provisions of the law. Act 10 had Canada Goose Coats On Sale forced the general unions but not the public safety unions to recertify themselves with a members’ vote every year. Judge William Conley wrote: “Even if not itself a direct violation Canada Goose sale of plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights, the appearance of a partisan division of the two classes of unions is troubling.”
canada goose coats on sale Intriguingly, both the public union canada goose clearance sale case and the gay marriage case refer back to some common decisions about government discrimination. Department of Agriculture canada goose uk outlet https://www.canadagooseoutletmall.com v. Moreno (1973), in which the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot deny Canada canada goose fur Goose Online food stamp benefits to economically qualified households simply because the people in them are not related by blood or marriage even though Congress had voted to do precisely that, evidently to prevent canada goose coats hippie communes from taking Canada Goose Jackets advantage of food stamps. In that case, the Supreme Court declared: “[I]f the constitutional conception of ‘equal protection of the laws’ means anything, it must, at the very least, mean that a bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot constitute a legitimate governmental interest.”
canada goose coats The idea of equal protection is hardly a permanent life raft for public unions, and indeed the Wisconsin court accepted the public safety rationale for keeping collective bargaining for police and firefighter canadian goose jacket unions while denying it to others. It’s conceivable that Walker and the legislature could go back and deny all union privileges to all public employees the court made it clear that the state has that right though it’s hard to see how such a law would pass. Other states are experimenting with their own ways of curbing public unions. But beyond all the political complaints about how public unions behave, beyond the “principled objections” to their very existence, critics are going to find it difficult to get around the fact that much of what unions do is constitutionally protected. It may be true that the Constitution doesn’t say anything about labor unions but it doesn’t say anything about getting married, either.
canadian goose jacket PHOTO: Protesters return to occupy the state capitol, as the Wisconsin State Assembly takes up the budget bill that was proposed by Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, in Madison, June 14, 2011. Don tell! : ) ALSO NOTE: This is also a test of how Canada Goose online this comment box processes formatting. canada goose uk black friday MODERATORS: Do as you will, especially if buy canada goose jacket line breaks are not preserved.].
