
After discovering the political action committee of the Washington state teachers’ union didn’t disclose the sources of its contributions as required by law, the Freedom Foundation filed a complaint with the state, forcing the union to file the proper disclosures.
The Freedom Foundation filed litigation this week against the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) in Thurston County Superior Court — its third such lawsuit pending against the state’s campaign finance watchdog over its failure to hold labor unions accountable for breaking state election laws.
This week, the Freedom Foundation filed six complaints with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) alleging three cities and three unions violated campaign finance laws while opposing local ballot propositions in 2014 that sought to make union dues payment optional for public employees and make collective bargaining negotiations involving public-sector unions and government officials open to public observation.
The Freedom Foundation is always active — and usually winning — in its legal battles with public-sector unions in Washington, Oregon and California. But even by our standards, the past few weeks have seen a significant number of notable victories in Washington state appellate courts.
The Freedom Foundation filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission alleging one of the political funds operated by the national AFSCME violated state campaign finance laws by failing to disclose tens of millions of dollars in contributions received and expenditures made to influence Washington elections.
The Freedom Foundation filed a lawsuit this week against the Washington Public Disclosure Commission in Thurston County Superior Court for mishandling a campaign finance complaint against the Service Employees International Union’s Political Education and Action Fund.
The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled the Freedom Foundation should have disclosed as a campaign expense the value of free legal services it provided to citizen sponsors of several local ballot measures in 2014. Here’s why we plan to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.