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By Root 714 0

Dr. Paul—now Senator Paul—stated that he supported most parts of the Civil Rights Act, except one—Title II. This statement sent politicians and the media into an uproar. Title II makes it unlawful for private businesses to discriminate against customers based on race. Dr. Paul and libertarians everywhere believe that the Natural Law is colorblind, that the personal decisions based on race are invidious and perfidious; but they also believe that the government has no right to force private persons or businesses (nongovernmental actors) to associate with whom they do not desire because this coercion violates First Amendment rights. The net result of the Civil Rights Act is forced association, which is unconstitutional on its face. Neither mandatory segregation nor mandatory association is consistent with the Natural Law or the Constitution in our free society.15

The Washington Post described Dr. Paul’s comments on the cable network as “an uncomfortable conversation about the federal government’s role in prohibiting racial discrimination and about a period of history that most politicians consider beyond debate.”16 It is depressing that we, as a society, cannot stomach a conversation on the fundamental freedom of association, property rights, and race in our allegedly “post-racial society.”

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How Laborious! Labor Unions and the Denial of the Right to Associate

Throughout history, there is a constant and sorry trend of government attempting to fix a problem, inevitably exacerbating the problem, and ultimately violating personal freedoms in the process. In the wake of severe economic troubles during the Great Depression, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), also called the Wagner Act. At the time, unemployment was high, and the standard of living was declining quickly. In theory, the Act “encourage[s] a healthy relationship between private-sector workers and their employers, which policy makers viewed as vital to the national interest.” Healthy relationship is a relative term. This particular definition came from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is the federal agency the NLRA created. It seems to me that a forced relationship (or association) is anything but healthy. Rather, this toxic federal law is a prime example of forced association in every way, with each and every party affected negatively. Let’s start from the top.

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Firstly, the NLRA requires private employers to work with certified unions (that are certified not by a neutral third party, but by the government). In doing so, the government is limiting the means by which private employers work and relate with their very own employees. Collective bargaining becomes the rule without the consent of one of the parties, the employer itself. “In ordinary contract law and on the basis of freedom of association, any contract between A and B that is the result of either A or B being forced to bargain with the other is null and void.”17 The government seems to ignore these established legal principles. Through the NLRA, it grossly violates the private property of the business owner and subsequently demolishes its right of association.

Ironically enough, the NLRA also violates the associational freedoms of the very individuals it seeks to protect: The individual workers. Their rights are violated in two ways. First, when a union has been approved by the majority of workers at a company as the “bargaining agent,” that union becomes the sole bargaining agent for all workers. It is the voice both of those who voted to join the union and those who voted against the union.18 As a result, a monopoly develops, and individual workers are barred from even representing themselves; they have been forced to associate with the majority.

Secondly, the NLRA compels the workers to pay union dues whether or not they voted for the union in the first place.19 The concept is called union security, but it is simply forced association.20

And lastly, the unions themselves endure forced association in yet a different manner. Unions must associate and accept