The Freedom Foundation on Nov. 24 filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Richard Tristan, a longtime Los Angeles County employee forced to support extreme leftist political speech against his will.
Unfortunately, this kind of constitutional violation is part and parcel of how the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) operates when it comes to its employees’ constitutional rights.
Tristan, who served as a probation officer with Los Angeles County for 30 years, signed a simple membership and dues authorization card with AFSCME Local 685 in 2012. According to the terms of the card, he had the ability to end his membership and dues deductions from his paycheck at any time.
Due to the union’s increased political activity and spending on radical candidates, causes, programs and tax increases Tristan vehemently disagrees with, he decided in April 2023 to exercise his First Amendment right to opt out of Local 685.
A month later, a union official called him and acknowledged receipt of his request. Nonetheless, the union did absolutely nothing but continue to use the county’s payroll system to deduct Tristan’s lawfully earned wages to fund its extreme political speech.
If you assume Los Angeles County, Tristan’s actual employer, might be concerned about one of its own employee’s constitutional rights being violated, you’d be mistaken.
County officials could have demanded the union comply with constitutionally required procedural safeguards in its collective bargaining agreement with Local 685, protecting employees like Tristan from this kind of violation.
Instead, it did nothing.
The county never stepped in to take affirmative action to provide any protections to Tristan, leading directly to his speech being compelled.
Unfortunately, the county showed no desire to follow the Constitution and ceded all control of employee deductions to the union, which then tried to pay him off rather than face the music.
But Tristan declined Local 685’s “settlement offer,” believing his constitutional injuries cut deeper than a simple refund check from Local 685.
At minimum, Tristan is owed a judicial acknowledgement of the county and AFSCME’s unconstitutional behavior through an award of damages.
And the Freedom Foundation is the team to get it for him.
