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As Ryan reported earlier this month, Washington state legislators recently introduced two bills (one in the House, one in the Senate) to allow unions to use non-member fees on political activity without getting permission from individual workers.

In Washington, teachers and other union workers are required by law to either join their union and pay dues or become “non-members” and pay agency fees that are supposed to pay for collective bargaining alone. Unions cannot use agency fees on politics without individual workers’ permission.

The bills use an accounting gimmick to skirt around the intent of the law approved by 72 percent of the state voters back in 1992. Essentially, these bills would allow unions to bypass the obligation to get permission by co-mingling non-member fees with member dues in their general funds—and simply claiming that a percentage of their total funds are not used.

If that sounds like legalese gobbledy-goop to you, that’s because it is—brought to you straight from the Washington Education Association (WEA). Yep, according to the Seattle Times, they drafted the bill, claiming the law was “murky.” (Hey, just because they had a hard time following it doesn’t mean it isn’t clear.) The union got their cronies in the legislature (all of whom have received political contributions from the WEA) to introduce it.

Apparently, these legislators saw what an “emergency” it would be to the union’s pocketbook and slapped an emergency clause on the bill, making it go into effect immediately upon passage and denying the people their right of referendum. (People from other states are always surprised when we describe the arrogance of the Washington legislature and courts, but this has actually happened many times before. We will use this as an opportunity to work for emergency clause reform.)

Of course, this is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent the pending U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the WEA involving this very law. (You can read more about the Supreme Court case here.) It’s too early to tell, but based on the Supreme Court hearing and the reaction of a number of legal analysts, the WEA’s chances of winning this case look slim to none. It makes sense that they would try to use the legislature to spare them an embarrassing loss in court and a potential loss of political funds.

These bills demonstrate an appalling contempt for the free speech rights of teachers and other workers. Teachers have been all the way to the Supreme Court to secure their rights, only to have lawmakers back at home attempt to yank the carpet out from under them.

Unions must get permission to use collective bargaining dues for political purposes. Teachers understand this. The Supreme Court Justices understand this, too. The WEA is the only entity that does not seem to get it: no one should be forced to pay for political activity against their will.

Kristen Mercier is a labor policy analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Labor Policy Center.