Freedom Foundation Wins Public Records Lawsuit Against SEIU 775

James Abernathy
October 28, 2014

Greetings, I am thrilled to report another victory for freedom against a public sector union.

Last July, Freedom Foundation made a public records request to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) seeking the names of all individual providers in the State of Washington. An individual provider is paid by Medicaid funds to provide care for the disabled in their home. There are over 30,000 individual providers in Washington. Freedom Foundation seeks these records simply to inform individual providers of their newly enunciated right under Harris v. Quinn (decided in June) to not pay union dues against their will—a right the union (SEIU 775) refuses to inform them of.

The union sued DSHS and Freedom Foundation to prevent disclosure of the records because the union wants to keep individual providers in the dark about their constitutional rights. Instead, the union wants to maintain its ability to intercept Medicaid funds intended to help the disabled and their care providers in order to put it in their own coffers. (This scheme is especially shameless—even for governement unions.)

The union lost big time. The judge ruled against every single one of the union’s arguments, stating that the requested records were disclosable under the Public Records Act. The union is appealing the decision, but the Freedom Foundation hopes to be able to inform individual providers of their constitutional rights very soon.

- Litigation
, Washington

James Abernathy

Senior Litigation Counsel

James serves as the Foundation’s Senior Litigation Counsel. Prior to joining the Freedom Foundation, James served several years as in-house counsel for a company in Ohio where he garnered experience in commercial litigation and corporate law. He earned his law degree from Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he graduated with honors and served as the International Editor on the Regent Journal of International Law. While in law school, James clerked at The Alabama Supreme Court and The Supreme Court of Virginia. Additionally, he served as an intern with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the American Center for Law & Justice, and Americans United for Life. He also worked as a graduate assistant, served on the Honor Council, and was a Blackstone Fellow in the Alliance Defense Fund Blackstone Fellowship. James also earned a Master’s Degree in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Comparative Religion from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. James is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and cheers passionately for the Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals. However, his family connections down South spawn loyalty to the only legitimate college football team in the State of Alabama—the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. James also enjoys involvement in church, exploring the United States, poker nights, movies, time with friends and family, and passionately advocating freedom-loving ideas wherever he goes.