This June marked the fifth anniversary of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling recognizing that taxpayer-compensated employees cannot be forced to financially support a union as a condition of employment. 

In those five years, unions and lower courts have responded by trying their best to ignore or violate that ruling, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), in order to continue taking money out of government employees’ paychecks and using it to advance their far-left political agenda.

First, unions began adopting a so-called “escape window” policy stating that the union will process a worker’s request to exercise his or her First Amendment rights of free speech and association during an arbitrary, union-established period of days or weeks every year.

Under the scheme, union representatives simply ignore employees’ attempts to communicate their desire to leave the union until that escape window has closed – refusing to answer emails or phone calls until the union can finally inform the astonished union members they have to wait and try again next year.

As the years passed and the Freedom Foundation intervened hundreds of times with cease-and-desist letters and legal challenges in court, the unions have become increasingly brazen, going so far as to forge signatures on membership cards falsely authorizing state government employers to deduct the dues from the employee’s paychecks. 

Even more recently, several unions in Washington state have asserted a dubious right to refuse delivery of certified mail packages from the Freedom Foundation containing dozens of valid opt-out forms submitted by their disgruntled members. 

In response, the packages were stamped with an alternate return address from our own employees, who volunteered to use their home addresses, but those were ultimately refused, as well. 

Naturally, another lawsuit is making its way through the Washington court system.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has so far declined to hear any of the dozens of appeals to hold the unions and lower courts accountable to the very plain language in Janus.

But there is some very, very good news. 

Despite the legal obstacles, the Freedom Foundation directly helped more than 33,000 public employees leave their unions in 2023 alone. At a national average of $1,000 per year in government employee union dues, that amounts to more than $33 million dollars this year that can’t be used to fund the political activism of union leaders at AFSCME, SEIU, and the two national teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Meanwhile, as we continue to wait for the Supreme Court to eventually act, state governments are filling the void by enacting laws intended to enforce what Janus clearly intended.

In 2023, for example, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky enacted laws to stop government from deducting dues on behalf of public-sector unions, forcing them to do their own billing. 

The Freedom Foundation worked directly with the lawmakers in those states, with Arkansas becoming the first to sign a measure into law.

In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear tried to prevent that state’s law from going into effect, but the legislature overruled his veto.

Overnight, hundreds of thousands of state and local government employees were freed from union dues and given the opportunity to keep that extra money in their paycheck or hand it over to a union to line the pockets of its leaders and fund radical political candidates and causes.

Some will rejoin, but most likely, the vast majority will realize that union membership isn’t nearly as important as having more money for gas, groceries, and emergency savings accounts.

More states are already poised to adopt similar legislation in 2024, keeping hundreds of millions of dollars out of union hands and back in the pockets of public employees, leaving government union bosses with less political influence to wield over the American public.

Regardless of when the Supreme Court decides to weigh in on the corrupt unions and complicit left-leaning judges thumbing their noses at the 2018 ruling, people are choosing to exercise the rights recognized in Janus.

Ashley Varner is the vice president of communications for the Freedom Foundation. www.FreedomFoundation.com