WA Supreme Court Justice doesn’t hide her pro-union bias

This is alarming, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Washington State Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, months before ruling on a case against charter schools brought by the Washington Education Association (WEA), delivered a speech before the political arm of the WEA.

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Not that Justice Yu would have offered a fair look at the case – I suspect she’s already decided to rule against charter schools, in favor of the union’s position – but usually, you try to hide your abject bias. Not so for Yu.

And conservatives are ripping this bad look.

“Charter school families have good reason to wonder about the WEA union’s influence on Justice Yu,” says Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center. “Justice Yu voted for the WEA union in the court’s first ruling to close charter schools. The WEA-PAC supported her campaign for office with hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now she is speaking at WEA-PAC rallies.”

State Representative Matt Manweller is also crying foul.

“What in the heck ever happened to judicial ethics?” Manweller asked on Facebook. “Here is sitting supreme court justice Mary Yu attending, speaking to, and creating a ‘call to action’ in front of the Washington Education Association’s PAC. However, the WEA is currently a plaintiff in ongoing cases before her court–the McCleary case which gave billions of dollars to the teachers union and the charter school appeal.”

It’s rather distressing that we’re not hearing Progressive outrage on this. The court is supposed to be above politics — or, at least, we try to fool ourselves into thinking that.

But you’d expect Justice Yu to express some level of discretion. Perhaps that is expecting too much. Justice Yu seems more interested in playing Celebrity Justice to her doting WEA supporters and she’s pre-celebrating her already-written pro-union ruling on a case she hasn’t even heard yet.

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