Hawaii SB 3055 is a carbon copy of Oregon’s unconstitutional HB 3789 — a union-backed effort to silence public employees’ constitutional right to opt out
Honolulu, HI — A Freedom Foundation spokesman on Tuesday testified before the Hawaii Legislature in opposition to Senate Bill 3055, a union-backed measure that closely mirrors Oregon’s controversial House Bill 3789, legislation the organization is currently challenging in federal court.
SB 3055 would create new civil penalties for so-called “false impersonation” of a labor union. Testimony from the Hawaii Government Employees Association/AFSCME Local 152 and United Public Workers/AFSCME Local 646 both conceded the Freedom Foundation is the sole motivation for the bill.
In testimony before the committee, Freedom Foundation Research and Government Affairs Associate Ben Straka noted that union officials were unable to produce a single documented case of the Freedom Foundation misrepresenting the source of its communications, in Hawaii or in Oregon.
Straka also highlighted that SB 3055 grants only union officials, not the public employees actually receiving the Freedom Foundation’s materials, the right to sue, and that no public employees testified in support of the bill.
The Freedom Foundation has seen this strategy before. Oregon enacted virtually identical legislation along party lines in 2025, and the Freedom Foundation filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit challenging it.
That case is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hawaii’s SB 3055 is the same playbook, exported to a new state.
“The real intent behind Senate Bill 3055 is not to address any legitimate cases of false impersonation, but rather to give unions a broadly drafted statutory weapon with which to wage costly lawfare against the Freedom Foundation,” Straka explained. “As shown by our federal lawsuit over the Oregon bill, we strongly believe this legislation is an unconstitutional attempt to silence our speech.”
Freedom Foundation CEO Aaron Withe said the bill is part of a national pattern in which public-sector unions use the legislative process to suppress the very outreach that makes worker choice a reality:
“Unions know they can’t win on the merits,” he said, “so they’re running to state legislatures to lobby for laws designed to make our outreach illegal.
“Hawaii SB 3055 isn’t about fraud,” Withe continued. “Existing law already criminalizes impersonating a union. This bill is about silencing the Freedom Foundation and keeping public employees in the dark about their constitutional rights. We fought this same unconstitutional scheme in Oregon, and that case is now before the 9th Circuit. We will fight it in Hawaii too.”
SB 3055’s real effect would be to expose organizations like the Freedom Foundation to costly litigation simply for communicating with public employees about their rights — chilling constitutionally protected speech.
