The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that government workers couldn't be forced to pay union dues.
Public-sector unions have spent every year since trying to make sure workers never find out.
And Oregon's Democrat-controlled legislature just made it illegal to tell them.
Oregon Handed Unions a $1 Billion Weapon to Silence Janus Rights Outreach
After the Supreme Court's Janus ruling, a nonprofit called the Freedom Foundation started mailing letters to public employees across the country explaining exactly what the decision meant – that they could stop paying union dues immediately, no permission required, no penalty, no job loss.
More than 295,000 government workers used those letters to walk away from their unions.
Oregon's House Bill 3789 was designed to shut down the Freedom Foundation’s work.
Every piece of mail the Freedom Foundation sends to a public employee explaining their constitutional right to opt out exposes the organization to $6,250 in fines – per letter. One statewide mailing means roughly $1 billion in potential liability.
Not for lying or fraud. For telling government workers they can quit their union and keep their dues money – a right the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed eight years ago.
The Freedom Foundation sued before the law took effect on January 1, 2026. A federal district judge dismissed the case. The 9th Circuit is now the last line of defense before Oregon's model becomes the national template.
The unions who wrote this law claimed it targeted fraud – mailers designed to deceive workers into thinking they came from union representatives. There's one problem. Oregon had existing fraud statutes covering exactly that conduct. And when the legislature was pressed to produce a single documented case of the Freedom Foundation impersonating a union, nobody came up with one.
The law was written to silence a critic that had already convinced more than 30,000 Oregon public employees to stop paying dues.
That's the fraud unions actually care about. The money walking out the door.
New York Democrats Passed a Bill to Criminalize Union Opt-Out Outreach
While the 9th Circuit considers Freedom Foundation's appeal, New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is sitting on nearly identical legislation.
New York's A.10835-A passed both chambers in June and gives the state attorney general sweeping power to investigate and fine groups over communications she decides "falsely impersonate" a union – language vague enough to swallow any honest opt-out outreach.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board called it the "Union Protection Act" and told Hochul not to sign it. The Freedom Foundation has promised a First Amendment lawsuit if she does.
Aaron Withe, the foundation's CEO, wrote in the New York Post that 7,500 New York workers who used Freedom Foundation materials didn't leave because they were tricked. They left because someone finally told them the truth.
Hochul hasn't signed it yet. But she hasn't vetoed it either.
When Union Dues Laws Aren't Enough, They Lock the Doors
The legislative campaign is the polite version of what unions are actually doing.
In Orange County, California, two home caregivers showed up to a new-hire orientation and found themselves trapped. Union representatives shut off the lights and blocked the exits.
Nobody left – not even for a bathroom break – until every attendee had signed dues authorization paperwork. The Freedom Foundation filed a class-action suit on their behalf.
This summer, the Foundation filed more than 36 separate unfair labor practice charges against three California unions on behalf of home caregivers who say their dues were taken without real consent.
Forged signatures on membership cards. Opt-out requests ignored for years. A security guard physically turning away a worker who tried to formally decline membership in person.
In one case, the name on a caregiver's membership card wasn't even close to her actual signature.
Thirty-six workers came forward with the same story. They tried to leave. The union simply didn't let them.
Nationally, public-sector unions have forfeited an estimated $848 million in dues they used to collect by default. AFSCME shed more than 200,000 dues-paying members in the five years following the Janus decision. The National Education Association watched its real dues revenue fall roughly 16 percent over the same period.
Even with outreach actively suppressed in Oregon, 695 state employees still managed to opt out in the first three months of 2026.
The math explains everything. Unions aren't fighting opt-out campaigns because they're fraudulent. They're fighting them because they work.
The One Thing Public Sector Unions Cannot Survive
Nobody passes a $6,250-per-letter censorship law because they're winning the argument. Nobody blocks exits at an orientation because workers are eager to sign. And nobody forges signatures on membership cards when people are lining up to join.
Every one of these tactics has the same ending: when public employees find out they have a choice, most of them take it. They keep their money and they walk.
Unions spent decades collecting dues automatically – deducted before workers ever saw a dime, bankrolling political campaigns those workers never approved. Janus ended the guaranteed revenue stream.
Oregon and New York are trying to rebuild the wall around it – not with better arguments or better services, but with laws written to make the truth harder to find.
The 9th Circuit will have its say on Oregon. Hochul will make her call on New York.
And somewhere in those two decisions is the answer to this: Does the First Amendment protect a conservative organization telling government workers they can quit their union, or can Democrat-controlled states make that speech a crime whenever union bosses find it financially inconvenient?
Sources:
- Aaron Withe, "Oregon just handed unions a tool to muzzle opt-out campaigns — New York is next," Washington Examiner, September 7, 2026.
- "Freedom Foundation Sues to Block Oregon Law Silencing Worker Rights Speech," Freedom Foundation, January 5, 2026.
- "Oregon public employees still opting out despite anti-Freedom Foundation legislation," Freedom Foundation, March 27, 2026.
- "Conservative think tank asks court to block Oregon union fraud law," OPB, January 6, 2026.
- "New York 'union protection act' draws threat of legal challenge," The Center Square, June 11, 2026.
- Aaron Withe, "The Freedom Foundation Cost Unions Millions. Now They Want Revenge," New York Post, June 17, 2026.
