The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, established in 1968, provides free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory unionism. The Foundation's legal aid program is designed to fulfill two objectives: to enforce employees' existing legal rights against forced unionism abuses; and to win new legal precedents expanding these rights and protections. These objectives are fulfilled through the litigation of cases involving: misuse of forced union dues for political purposes; union coercion violating employees' constitutional and civil rights; injustices of compulsory union hiring halls; union violations of the merit principle in public employment and academic freedom in education; union violence against workers; and violations of other existing legal protections against union coercion.