The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues.
Kathy Hochul just signed a law to make sure New York teachers never find out.
A conservative group helped 7,500 New York public employees cancel their union memberships – and the unions went straight to Albany to shut it down.
Hochul Signs Law to Stop Teachers from Learning They Can Leave Their Union
The Freedom Foundation mails public employees a simple fact: under Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision, they don't have to pay union dues.
That message has cost union bosses real money in New York – nearly 7,500 state public employees used Freedom Foundation materials to walk away, with more than 1,400 doing it in 2026 alone.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation last week. It arms Democrat Attorney General Letitia James with authority to investigate, sue, and levy fines of up to $1,000 per incident against organizations whose communications the state decides look too much like official union correspondence. James can pursue out-of-state groups.
Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe called it exactly what it is.
"This law isn't about protecting anyone," Withe said. "It exists because government unions in New York are terrified of an inconvenient fact: when public employees learn they don't have to pay union dues, a lot of them stop."
Oregon Built This Law to Silence Union Dues Opt-Outs and Lost in Court
New York didn't write this law. They copied it.
Oregon passed nearly identical legislation in June 2025. The Freedom Foundation sued the day before it took effect and the case is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a district judge dismissed the challenge.
Under that ruling, the Freedom Foundation must operate under threat of fines up to $6,250 per piece of mail and can only raise constitutional objections as a defense after the fact.
That an attempt to squash the Freedom Foundation’s free speech rights.
Oregon unions drafted HB 3789 themselves and delivered it to friendly legislators. During the entire legislative process, not one documented case of the Freedom Foundation passing itself off as a union was ever presented. The law passed along strict party lines anyway.
Hochul's team borrowed the blueprint. Ryan Walters, CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance, called the New York version "pure censorship and targeting of political opponents by Democrats protecting their union bosses."
He's right about the spread.
"Where New York goes with this," Walters said, "is going to be where the other blue states follow."
Teachers Union Money Bought Hochul and Now She's Paying Them Back
New York State United Teachers endorsed Hochul for governor. Teachers union affiliates contributed $36,000 directly to Hochul's campaign and poured more than $1.1 million into Democrat Party committees in New York – the State Democratic Committee, the Assembly campaign arm, and the Senate campaign committee. Letitia James received $9,000 directly from union PACs.
James is running for a third term as attorney general in November 2026. She just received the power to financially destroy the one organization that has been draining union dues revenue one opt-out at a time.
Janus v. AFSCME settled this eight years ago: public-sector employees cannot be forced to subsidize union political speech. Hochul just handed her union donors a government-backed weapon to make sure workers never act on that right.
Letitia James Becomes the Teachers Unions Enforcer in Every Blue State
Every time courts close one trap, union bosses run to state legislatures to build another.
Since Janus, blue state unions have manufactured narrow opt-out windows, locked membership agreements, and now targeted speech laws – anything to keep dues flowing from workers who would stop paying the moment they understood they had a choice.
Washington state officials openly defied Janus until the Freedom Foundation sued the governor's office to force compliance.
New York's version puts the attorney general – a union-backed elected official running for re-election in November – directly in the enforcement seat.
Walters said the quiet part out loud. "They have to control the school system to continue to control the country," he said. "That's why the teachers' unions are enemy number one of progress in this country."
The Freedom Foundation says it will challenge New York's law the same way it challenged Oregon's. The question is whether courts move faster than the blue state legislature assembly line cranking out laws designed to bury a Supreme Court ruling union bosses never accepted.
Sources:
- Peter Pinedo, "Hochul accused of 'hit job' on behalf of teachers' unions in act of 'pure censorship': labor group," Fox News, September 14, 2026.
- Freedom Foundation, "Freedom Foundation Appeals Dismissal of Lawsuit Challenging Oregon 'Anti-Impersonation' Law," Freedom Foundation Press Release, March 17, 2026.
- Freedom Foundation, "Freedom Foundation Sues to Block Oregon Law Silencing Worker Rights Speech," Freedom Foundation Press Release, January 5, 2026.
- Freedom Foundation, "Oregon public employees still opting out despite anti-Freedom Foundation legislation," Freedom Foundation, March 27, 2026.
- The Center Square, "Teacher unions contribute millions to Dems' state campaigns," The Center Square, August 2026.
