The Freedom Foundation is no stranger to courtroom battles. The SPN affiliate has spent years litigating major fights over union power and workers’ rights.
But legal capacity is not only about lawsuits and precedents. It also includes knowing how to use the law to get results before a case is ever filed.
That is what Freedom Foundation did for a California public employee named Tom Purciel. His case is a good reminder that legal capacity is not just about winning precedent in the Supreme Court. It is also about helping people assert rights they already have.
When a Right Exists on Paper but Not in Practice
While some public employees enjoy being in a union, many workers don’t benefit from union membership (or don’t appreciate government unions spending hundreds of millions on politics). As a result, a growing number of workers are foregoing their union memberships and keeping their hard-earned money.
Or at least they’re trying to.
Not wanting to relinquish union dues, the biggest public-sector unions such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have devised complicated rules dictating how their members would be allowed to leave the union.
Narrow and confusing “opt-out” procedures, unanswered messages, and unreasonable delays have made leaving the union nearly impossible for government workers across the country.
Purciel wanted to resign from his union after objecting to its political activity, so he did what most people would do first. He wrote to AFSCME Council 57 and asked to leave. The union did not respond. He then went to his employer and asked that the dues deductions stop. The county payroll department told him it would not act without direction from the union.
That’s when the Freedom Foundation stepped in.
After getting nowhere dealing with the union himself, Purciel retained counsel with the Freedom Foundation. The first thing they did was send a letter to Purciel’s union demanding they end his membership and refund any dues illegally deducted from his paycheck after he sent his initial opt-out letter.
That changed the equation. For months, Purciel’s requests to his union went ignored. But as soon as Freedom Foundation sent a demand letter, the union not only listened, but complied with every one of Purciel’s demands.
Freedom Foundation did not need to win a major court ruling to get results. This was legal capacity applied at exactly the right moment. It knew the law, identified the pressure point, and intervened in a way the union could not ignore.
What This Shows About Legal Capacity
There are dozens of examples of Freedom Foundation and other SPN members utilizing demand letters to get immediate and effective relief for workers. Ravi Prasad, Litigation Counsel at Freedom Foundation, put it well when he said, “a constitutional right should be a constitutional right every day of the year, not just on a handful of days selected by government unions.”
Demand letters have quickly become one of the most effective tools against public sector unions violating workers’ rights. Not only are they quick and affordable (especially compared to filing a lawsuit or waging a legislative campaign), but they’re helping workers every day. And SPN is providing support to member organizations looking to utilize demand letters in their policy toolboxes.
A legal organization does not create value only by bringing major cases or filing influential briefs. It also creates value by helping people act on rights they already possess.
That function is easy to overlook because it is quieter than litigation. It does not usually produce a splashy ruling or a new precedent. A right on paper, though, is not much use if no one can help enforce it.
