U.S. Supreme Court’s Ysursa Ruling a Sweet Victory for Clean Government

Update (3/10): Mike Reitz weighs in with an observation some of my readers may have a hard time believing: “Public policy wonks are real people, too.”

Here’s a U.S. Supreme Court decision that may have flown past your radar – Ysursa v Pocatello Education Association. The ruling ensures states (like Idaho and Utah already have done) can regulate the use of government payroll systems to prevent the collection of political contributions.

As Mike Reitz from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation explained to me in a new iVoices podcast, it’s a victory for clean government, taxpayers and orderly state labor relations:

A lot of the money funneled through government payroll systems goes to support the removal of the secret ballot and job growth stifling that come with the poorly-named Employee Free Choice Act.

Which Congress incidentally starts debating tomorrow.

Amendment 49 lost last year, but might the Ethical Standards idea be worth resurrecting?

(One final note: Star Wars fans will have to tell me what they think of the analogy I invoke near the middle of the 7-minute podcast.)