State v. Washington Education Ass'n

The Washington Education Association (WEA) conducted a campaign opposing two statewide initiatives in the 1996 general election. The initiatives did not pass. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit against WEA, alleging that WEA was a political committee and, therefore, it did not make the appropriate financial disclosures regarding its opposition to the initiatives. At trial, WEA asserted that the definition of “political committee” was unconstitutional because it chilled WEA’s First Amendment right to issue advocacy. The trial court *593found that WEA was not a political…