[12] In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees have the 1st Amendment Right of Freedom of Association and can no longer be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment.
He added, "The Freedom Foundation has a proven plan for bankrupting and defeating government unions through education, litigation, legislation and community activation.
[4] In 2007, the foundation filed a complaint against the Washington Education Association (WEA), accusing the union of unlawfully spending worker fees on politics.
[15] In response to that complaint, the state in turn sued the union, which represents public school employees, on the grounds that the WEA was unlawfully spending some workers' fees on politics.
[16] The Supreme Court unanimously decided in Davenport v. Washington Education Association that states can require public-employee labor unions to get consent from workers before using their fees for political activities.
[22][23] In March 2015, the organization filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four family child-care providers who objected to paying union fees to SEIU 925.
[27][28] In 2015, Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office filed suit against the Freedom Foundation claiming violations of the state campaign-finance laws regarding the organization's opposition to Initiative 1501, a statewide ballot measure.
The lawsuit[33] alleges that the organization paid its staff to oppose a 2016 progressive income tax initiative in the city of Olympia, but failed to report those expenditures to the Public Disclosure Commission.
In 2016 two affiliates of the SEIU settled lawsuits by agreeing to pay civil penalties to the state over campaign-disclosure omissions based upon complaints filled by the Freedom Foundation.
"[41][12] During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the group received assistance between $350,000 and $1 million in federally backed small business loans from Commencement Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program.