A couple of days ago I witnessed something I never would have seen during my time in the Legislature. The passage of a bill that is clearly unconstitutional by a committee (which acknowledged its unconstitutionality) that is tasked with doing whatever the Speaker of the House says will be done, Constitution be damned! All of it, to pay off the unions to make it easier for them to organize private employers.

SB 519 was pushed by the unions who want to prevent employers from having conversations with their employees about "political issues." The real purpose is to try and prevent conversations discouraging employees from forming a union. Not only does this violate Article 1, section 8 of the Oregon Constitution, but a legal opinion by the opposition declared that even legislators could not have political discussions with their own staff!

Yet even with all of these facts clearly and plainly articulated during the House Rules Committee meeting, the Democrats in control still voted in favor of sending the bill to the full House of Representatives for a vote. This is a testament to the true power of the unions to influence the controlling party and certainly explains why the Legislature is moving so far to the left, so quickly.

Stunning.