West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey issued the following statement regarding the legal battle at the State Supreme Court of Appeals over the West Virginia Paycheck Protection Act:” The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has more than once held that the West Virginia Constitution does not contain any right to collect union dues. Just four years ago, this Court held that there was no basis to preliminarily enjoin the 2016 West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act, which prohibited contracts requiring all employees — members and non-members alike — to pay union dues.
“This challenge to West Virginia’s Paycheck Protection Act implicates similar interests. The Court should reach the same result here and uphold the law.
“The Legislature’s goal in passing this law was to make sure the hardworking men and women of West Virginia are not forced to give up their hard-earned dollars. As the U.S. Supreme Court has said, employees must give clear, unequivocal consent before their paychecks can be diverted for union dues. The Paycheck Protection Act does nothing more than remove the State as a middleman from that process — ensuring that employees are truly consenting. It places unions in the same position as the many other businesses and organizations who must collect their own fees from willing customers or members.
“The challengers say this law undermines First Amendment rights. But in fact, it preserves them. The Act ensures that the First Amendment rights of every employee are respected by guaranteeing that their earnings are not unintentionally diverted to pay for speech and other activities that they never intended to support.
“Our filing and arguments otherwise stand for themselves.”
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