Ramos Ramos v. Jordan-Conde

── Ramos Ramos v. Jordan-Conde ── Case No.: 23-1940 Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Date: March 25, 2026 Category: General United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 23-1940 JOSÉ A. RAMOS-RAMOS; ORLANDO MÉNDEZ-LÓPEZ; IGNERIS A. PÉREZ-ROSARIO; JOSÉ COTTO-MELÉNDEZ, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. ZAYIRA JORDÁN-CONDE, in her official capacity as President of the University of Puerto Rico;* SINDICATO DE TRABAJADORES DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO, Defendants, Appellees. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO [Hon. Gina R. Méndez-Miró, U.S. District Judge] Before Barron, Chief Judge, Thompson and Aframe, Circuit Judges. Matthew B. Gilliam, with whom Milton L. Chappell, Ángel J. Valencia, and National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. were on brief, for appellants. Edgar Hernández-Sánchez, with whom Cancio, Nadal & Rivera, LLC was on brief, for appellee Zayira Jordán-Conde. Jorge L. Marchand Heredia for appellee Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. * Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c)(2), Zayira Jordán-Conde is substituted for the former president of the University of Puerto Rico. March 25, 2026  AFRAME, Circuit Judge. For almost four decades, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209, 224-26 (1977), allowed public employers and public sector unions to collect certain dues from member and non-member employees alike. But Janus v. American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees, Council 31, 585 U.S. 878, 884-86, 930 (2018), overruled Abood and held that laws requiring public sector employees to pay union dues without their consent constitute compelled speech and association in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. After Janus, four employees at the University of Puerto Rico ("UPR") demanded that UPR and the union representing them, the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Universidad de Puerto Rico ("the Union"), stop deducting dues from their paychecks, thus effectively resigning from the Union. When UPR continued deducting the dues, the employees sued the Union and the UPR president alleging, inter alia, a First Amendment violation. The district court largely granted summary judgment for the UPR president and the Union, concluding that neither party committed a constitutional violation. It nevertheless issued a judgment requiring the Union to reimburse the employees for the withheld dues payments that occurred after the employees resigned from the Union. On appeal, the employees ask this Court to reverse the summary judgment ruling and order the district court to issue declaratory judgments that (1) the post-resignation dues - 3 - deductions were unconstitutional and (2) taking such deductions in the future would be unconstitutional. We dismiss the appeal because the declarations sought are moot. I. Since the 1950s, the Union has been the exclusive bargaining representative for employees at UPR, which is an "arm of the Commonwealth," Irizarry-Mora v. Univ. of P.R., 647 F.3d 9, 15 (1st Cir. 2011). In December 2014, the Union and UPR signed a collective bargaining agreement that compelled Union membership for most UPR employees and permitted payroll dues deductions for members and non-members alike. To effectuate this agreement, UPR deducted dues from employees' paychecks and forwarded them to the Union. After Janus, two Union members, José A. Ramos-Ramos and Orlando Méndez-López, sent lett