OLYMPIA -- Attorney General Rob McKenna hailed victory in last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on union dues. But Washington's Supreme Court, and ultimately its voters, could wind up the real losers.

McKenna "won his first case before the United States Supreme Court," his office stated in a June 14 press release on the USSC decision. The High Court unanimously ruled consitutional a requirement that unions gain non-members' consent before spending their dues politically.

Unfortunately, points out Doug DeForest in an op-ed piece in today's The Olympian, a 6-3 majority of the state's liberal-dominated Supreme Court had already ruled that it wasn't.

Those six - all considered "liberals" - were Associate Chief Justice Charles Johnson, plus Justices Bobbe Bridge, Tom Chambers, Barbara Madsen, Susan Owens and Justice Faith Ireland. Justice Bridge recently announced her retirement after 18 years on the Supreme Court and Justice Ireland no longer serves.

McKenna called the decision "an important victory for the First Amendment rights of workers in Washington." It followed a complaint from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation about a WEA requirement that non-members lodge political-spending objections within 30 days.

The 9-0 opinion in fact represents a huge victory for the arguments McKenna advanced, says DeForest. "There was no minority report" for opponents to hang their hat on, he notes, plus "both the liberal and conservative elements ... joined together in the decision."

Such a loss, he adds, is bad news for the people of Washington state. "We, the people, look to the state Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution of this country," he wrote.

"This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court says very clearly ... that the six state Supreme Court justices voting to uphold the WEA did not understand and/or correctly apply the First Amendment to the Constitution," he added.

The Washington Supreme Court's March 2006 decision effectively ruled unconstitutional Initiative 134, which was enacted by the state's voters in 1992.