A group of private-sector unions sued the state, arguing state and federal law require unions to provide collective bargaining services to all employees in a represented workplace, regardless of whether they pay union dues. That made the state’s right-to-work law an illegal “taking” of their services, they argued.

There are two somewhat interesting things of note. First, we see again what has become the MO for Republican legislation in Wisconsin. After being duly passed into law, the liberals sue, a Dane County judge calls the law unconstitutional, and the judicial process proceeds until the law is eventually allowed to stand. We saw it with Act 10, Voter ID, etc. It is tiresome that liberals in this state can’t respect the will of the people as expressed through their duly elected representatives in the legislative and executive branches of government.

Second, try to understand the rationale of the lawsuit. They are claiming that since the union has to represent all employees, the fact that some employees can opt out of the union is a violation of the constitutional provision prohibiting government from taking money or property without just compensation. So in their minds, if a private organization (union) chooses to provide a service for a person without permission, then that person must pay the private organization for those services or it violates the constitution.

Of course, this line of legal theory has been advanced before in other states where Right to Work has been enacted, and failed the miserable legal death it deserves. But it does illustrate the liberal mindset that the individual’s money and property is theirs first and the individual get to keep whatever is left over.