State lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow attorneys to stop paying membership dues to the State Bar of Michigan.
We have more from The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher.
In 2012, the state made it illegal to require workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment – making Michigan the 24th right-to-work state.
Republican state Senator Arlan Meekhof’s bill extends that same idea to lawyers. He says the State Bar has become a political organization, and its members should also have the choice to leave.
“There’s lots of different things that their members have disagreed with that we’ve heard from their members that said we’d like the freedom not to be able to associate with that,” he says.
The State Bar has expressed concerns about a number of high-profile bills recently. Those include an overhaul of the state’s Court of Claims and Senator Meekhof’s bill to protect donors that bankroll so-called “issue ads”.