OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from voting or holding public-sector jobs is unconstitutional.
Evidently, that's not enough time to remove it from the books.
Washington is among a handful of states with similar laws still in existence despite their having been declared unconstitutional decades ago.
Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, first introduced a measure to repeal Washington state's anachronistic anti-subversives law last year, figuring it would further distance the nation from a dark period in its history.
The measure failed, proving him wrong.
This year, Fitzgibbon reintroduced the measure with the understanding that it likely would not even get out of committee. By the end of Friday that understanding was confirmed.
