Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) signed a bill on Sept. 9 that tells you everything about how entrenched interests behave when they start losing an argument.
asserted
they → sign → argument
They don’t get better at making their case.
asserted
They → get → case
They get a lawyer, a subpoena, and a fine schedule.
asserted
They → get → lawyer
The new law makes it illegal to “falsely impersonate” a union or a union representative in New York.
asserted
it → make → York
On its face, that sounds reasonable.
asserted
that → sound → face
Fraud is bad and nobody wants a con artist posing as a shop steward to steal a worker’s Social Security number.
asserted
artist → want → number
But read past the press release and you find the real target: the state attorney general now has subpoena power and can seek $1,000 per violation against any person or group, in state or out, whose mailers about a worker’s right to leave a union get labeled “impersonation.”
asserted
mailers → read → union
Unions get their own private right to sue on top of that.
asserted
Unions → get → that
I’ve spent three decades in regulated finance, and I know what an uncapped $1,000-per-item liability schedule does to an organization’s willingness to speak.
asserted
schedule → spend → willingness
It doesn’t punish fraud.
asserted
It → punish → fraud
It punishes volume.
asserted
It → punish → volume
The group this law was built to hit is the Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has spent years telling public employees about their rights under Janus v. AFSCME, the 2018 Supreme Court decision holding that government workers cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
asserted
workers → build → employment
The foundation’s mail campaigns tell workers, in clearly branded materials, that they can opt out.
asserted
they → tell → materials
By the group’s count, more than 5,000 Oregon public employees dropped union membership in 2025 alone.
asserted
employees → drop → 2025
That is not a rounding error to a union treasurer.
asserted
That → round → treasurer
Foundation CEO Aaron Withe called the New York law “a hit job,” and for once a political sound bite has the virtue of being accurate.
asserted
bite → call → virtue
New York did not invent this playbook.
asserted
York → invent → playbook
Oregon passed its own version, HB 3789, which lets unions sue for up to $6,250 per mailer.
asserted
unions → pass → mailer
By the foundation’s math, one statewide mailing could expose it to roughly $1 billion in theoretical liability.
uncertain
mailing → expose → liability
A federal district court tossed the challenge on ripeness grounds, reasoning that no union had sued yet, so there was nothing concrete to fight.
asserted
union → toss → grounds
That’s a neat trick: pass a law so punishing nobody dares trigger it, then argue there’s no live controversy because nobody’s been punished.
asserted
nobody → ’ → it
The foundation appealed to the 9th Circuit, and that case tests the same question New York’s law raises.
asserted
law → appeal → question
Can a state ban genuine fraud without also banning the truth?
asserted
state → ban → truth
New York and Oregon are not alone in reaching for this playbook.
asserted
York → reach → playbook
California just used the same tool on a different target.
asserted
California → use → target
In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed AB 2624, quickly nicknamed the Stop Nick Shirley Act after the videographer whose viral investigations into taxpayer-funded daycare and immigration-services programs prompted it.
asserted
investigations → sign → it
The bill expands California’s Safe at Home program to shield immigration-services providers, penalizing anyone who posts their information with intent to harass.
asserted
who → expand → intent
Nobody wants a whistleblower’s family doxed, but the mechanism is identical: write an intent standard vague enough that a citizen with a camera thinks twice before filming.
asserted
citizen → want → camera
Here’s the constitutional problem in plain English.
asserted
problem → ’ → English
The First Amendment doesn’t protect a con man who tells a worker, “I’m from Local 47, hand over your bank routing number.”
asserted
I → protect → number
Nobody argues for that.
asserted
Nobody → argue → that
But impersonation statutes like these don’t stop at fraud.
asserted
statutes → stop → fraud
They reach organizations that identify themselves accurately and simply tell a worker a true fact about a right the Supreme Court already recognized.
asserted
Court → reach → right
A law that lets an attorney general or a union decide, after the fact, that a truthful mailer “resembled” official union correspondence isn’t an anti-fraud statute.
asserted
mailer → let → correspondence
It’s a vagueness machine, and vague speech restrictions chill more speech than they ever catch fraud.
asserted
they → ’ → fraud
Late Justice Antonin Scalia spent a career explaining that the Constitution doesn’t bend to whichever outcome a legislature finds convenient, and a legislature can’t dress up viewpoint discrimination in an anti-fraud costume and expect the label to survive scrutiny.
Supporters will tell you this law simply protects workers from deceptive mail.
asserted
law → spend → mail
If the Freedom Foundation’s mailers falsely claim to be official union communications, New York already has fraud and false advertising statutes on the books to handle it, the same way every state prosecutes someone who fakes a police badge.
uncertain
who → claim → badge
What New York actually built is a mechanism that lets the accuser define the crime after the letter has gone out, then bill the sender $1,000 a copy for the privilege of being investigated.
asserted
letter → build → privilege
That’s a tollbooth on the road to telling workers the truth.
asserted
That → ’ → truth
The Eagles had it right decades before anyone drafted this bill: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
asserted
you → have → bill
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
