In the case of Hernandez et al. v. Veterans' Administration et al., 1973, a group of Spanish-speaking veterans filed a class-action lawsuit against the Veterans' Administration (VA). The plaintiffs alleged that they were discriminated against because VA hospitals did not provide them with adequate language assistance services, which violated their Fifth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection under the law. They argued that without these services, they could not fully understand or participate in their medical treatment plans. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the VA stating there was no constitutional requirement for federal agencies to provide bilingual services and dismissed all claims made by Hernandez and his fellow plaintiffs.

In the dissenting opinion for Hernandez et al. v. Veterans' Administration et al., it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold a federal regulation prohibiting employees of Veterans' Administration hospitals from unionizing violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of association and speech. The dissenters believed that this prohibition was not justified by any compelling government interest, as required under strict scrutiny analysis for restrictions on fundamental constitutional rights. They also disagreed with the majority's view that allowing these employees to unionize would disrupt hospital operations or patient care, arguing instead that collective bargaining could actually improve working conditions and thus indirectly benefit patients as well.