…if not necessarily for organized labor or, more particularly, for organized labor leaders.

Michigan’s right-to-work law applies to 35,000 state employees, a divided state appeals court ruled Thursday in the first major legal decision on the much-debated measure eight months after it passed.

Judges voted 2-1 to reject a lawsuit filed by unionized workers who make up more than two-thirds of all state employees.

In ruling that unions cannot force workers to pay union dues, when they’re not union members as a condition of employment, the majority ruled, in part:

In light of the First Amendment rights at stake, the Michigan Legislature has made the policy decision to settle the matter by giving all employees the right to choose…[and to] remove politics from public employment and to end all inquiry or debate about how public sector union fees are spent.

It’s in fits and starts, but individual liberty is beginning to survive.