SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico | August 11, 2026 — The Liberty Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Puerto Rico public employee Sonia M. Dávila-Surén, challenging a scheme that forces her to remain a union member and continue paying union dues despite her repeated written requests to resign and stop the deductions.
In Dávila-Surén v. Puerto Rico Industrial Commission, the Liberty Justice Center represents Sonia M. Dávila-Surén, an employee in the legal department of the Puerto Rico Industrial Commission (PRIC). The lawsuit challenges PRIC’s continued deduction of union dues from her wages and the union’s enforcement of a so-called “Disaffiliation Regulation” that imposes burdensome procedural hurdles on employees who seek to resign from union membership and stop dues deductions.
The Liberty Justice Center’s U.S. Supreme Court victory in Janus v. AFSCME made clear that public employees cannot be forced to subsidize a union without their affirmative consent. According to the complaint, Dávila-Surén never signed a dues-deduction authorization form and has repeatedly notified both the union and PRIC that she does not consent to union membership or dues deductions.
Despite her repeated written objections, PRIC and the union have continued deducting and collecting dues from her wages. The complaint alleges that the union refused to honor her resignation unless she complied with its internal union procedures. Although the written regulation permits requests to be delivered either by certified mail or in person, the union allegedly applied it to Davila-Suren by insisting that she appear personally at union headquarters. PRIC then deferred to the union’s decision instead of honoring Dávila-Surén’s constitutional rights.
“The First Amendment does not allow a public employer and a union to trap employees in dues deductions through bureaucratic obstacles,” said Ángel J. Valencia, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “When a public employee clearly says she does not consent to union membership or dues deductions, that should be the end of it.”
According to the lawsuit, PRIC honored Dávila-Surén’s September 2020 request to end her union membership and stop dues deductions. But in November 2022, PRIC announced that it was reinstating compulsory union membership and dues deductions for all employees in the bargaining unit, including nonmembers such as Davila-Suren, at the union’s urging. PRIC resumed deducting dues from her wages the following month.
On June 9, 2026, Dávila-Surén again notified both the union and PRIC in writing that she was resigning her union membership and directing them to stop the deductions effective July 1. Since then, PRIC and the union have continued deducting and collecting $15 in union dues from each of her semimonthly paychecks.
Public employees do not lose their constitutional rights simply because a union creates internal procedures that frustrate the exercise of those rights. A public employer cannot delegate its constitutional obligations to a union, and a union cannot impose unlawful barriers to an employee’s right to stop subsidizing union speech.
This is not the Liberty Justice Center’s first effort to defend Puerto Rico public employees’ Janus rights. Liberty Justice Center is also litigating Rigau v. Quintana, challenging PRIC’s reinstatement of union dues deductions despite an employee’s objections, and Méndez-Lopez v. University of Puerto Rico, challenging a publicly funded payment reserved for union members.
The Liberty Justice Center’s complaint in Dávila-Surén v. Puerto Rico Industrial Commission is available here.
A copy of the Liberty Justice Center’s press release in Spanish is available here.