Hawaii union law potentially unconstitutional
Act 007 appears to be in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ‘Janus’ decision HONOLULU, Sept. 27, 2018 >> A new Hawaii law governing union membership dues may be unconstitutional, according to attorneys Tony Gill and Jacob Huebert, who...
Stop digging deeper pension debt
They call it the first law of holes, and the principle is simple: When you’re in a hole, stop digging. If only we could apply this to Hawaii’s public pension crisis. When it comes to the state’s unfunded pension liabilities, there’s broad agreement that it’s a...
Free speech beats ‘free rider’
In a month that has seen several controversial Supreme Court decisions, the Justices may have saved the biggest one for last. On Wednesday, the Court handed down its decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which challenged the constitutionality of requiring government employees...
As least we’re not as bad as California …
This week I am writing to you from Dallas and the Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA) conference. Every year I join with leaders of policy think tanks from other U.S. states, plus from Canada and Mexico, to meet with economists who measure and study ways to...
Abolishing mandatory fees could help unions
Will Hawaii’s public unions lose power if their membership dues become voluntary under a pending Supreme Court ruling in the case known as Janus v. AFSCME? Probably not, according to panelists at an event I moderated last week for the Federalist Society of Hawaii...
Aaron Lief is a writer and researcher for the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.