There was a flury of action this week involving the U.S. Supreme Court. One ruling handed down this week attracted attention in Massachusetts and elsewhere, involving payments to unions.
In a 5-4 ruling, the high court said it's unconstitutional to force public employees to pay any money to labor unions that represent them in collective bargaining. This decision drew an angry response from organized labor in Massachusetts and elsewhere. This was just one of several decisions announced this week, on top of the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Recently, the ballots for the Connecticut gubernatorial primary electionswere finallized. There are a pair of Democrats and five Republicans vying to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy. The primary is on August 14.
And speaking of elections, the Massachusetts House passed an automatic voter registration bill this week. Supporters say it could add 700,000 people to the voter rolls and up turnout by 5 percent. And those not interested in voting still would have the ability to opt-out.
And finally, the Hartford Line rail service between Springfield, Hartford and New Haven has been rolling for a few weeks. Both of our panelists have had a chance to try it out. And, they say, there are some things they like, but a few areas that could use some work.
- Mike Dobbs, managing editor, Reminder Newspapers
- Susan Bigelow, columnist, CT News Junkie