Boardman v. Inslee

“Freedom Foundation filed an appeal petition to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in a first-of-its-kind case to undo the damage from a deceptive ballot measure that effectively prevents the release of certain state employees’ contact information to anyone but the government union. . . . Initiative 1501, passed in Washington State in November 2016, was billed as a way of protecting senior citizens and other vulnerable individuals from identity theft. In reality, the ballot measure was a scheme pushed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as a way of preventing individual caregivers, like Brad Boardman and the Freedom Foundation from obtaining in-home caregivers’ contact information to inform them of their right not to support the union with their state-subsidized paychecks.” ­– Freedom Foundation

The United States Supreme Court is currently considering whether to grant certiorari in this case. The Fairness Center filed an amicus brief encouraging the Supreme Court to hear the case, as certain clients of the Fairness Center have also experienced difficulty gaining information related to their representation and their rights, and have been injured by imposition of an unwanted exclusive representative into working relationships between employer and employee.

In 2015, Pennsylvania’s governor issued an executive order paving the way for the unionizing of 20,000 private employees who, like one of our clients, provide in-home care. The Fairness Center filed a lawsuit on our clients’ behalf, and our clients initially succeeded in having the executive order enjoined. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ultimately allowed it to stand as a “permissible exercise of gubernatorial power,” letting a union insert itself into the relationship between 20,000 homecare workers and the disabled and elderly persons who employ them—whether they want it or not. In connection with that representation, the Fairness Center also submitted open records requests under Pennsylvania law, seeking information related to the representation of homecare workers in Pennsylvania. But the requests resulted in years-long litigation, compounding the existing hurdles homecare workers face to learning basic information about how they are represented.

If you believe you have been hurt by a public-sector union official and would like to speak with the Fairness Center, please click here.