How the most pro-business SCOTUS in history could hobble the labor movement
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The campaign to organize Starbucks workers helped galvanize a labor resurgence in the U.S., but those efforts hit a roadblock Thursday: the Supreme Court.
Why it matters: There's a lot of momentum in labor's favor these days — positive public sentiment, an energized grassroots, a supportive White House — but the most pro-business court ever threatens to hobble it.
Driving the news: The high court voted 8-1 in favor of Starbucks in a case the company filed against the National Labor Relations Board involving the so-called Memphis 7, a group of unionizing workers who said they were unlawfully fired after they appeared in a TV news segment.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who's effectively become the court's lone labor supporter, wrote the dissent.
- The decision will make it harder for the NLRB, the agency that administers the national labor law, to go after employers for violating its rules.
The big picture: Under Biden-appointee Jennifer Abruzzo, the labor board has taken a much more aggressive stance against employers accused of violating labor laws, says Kate Bronfenbrenner, a senior lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
- Their efforts have been bolstered by a newly energized labor movement — particularly the Starbucks campaign.
- "More than any other in U.S. history, [the Starbucks campaign] injected a vividness and a concreteness into the debate over union representation," says John Logan, a labor historian at San Francisco State University.
Follow the money: Employers are aggressively fighting the NLRB in court and finding a fairly friendly judiciary, particularly at the Supreme Court.
- Even the liberal justices are landing on the pro-business end of the scale.
- This ruling wasn't even particularly political, says Logan. "The court has pretty much always ruled that employers' individual rights (free speech, property) trump labor's collective rights."
Flashback: Last year in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters the court issued another 8-1 ruling, against the union in a case involving the right to strike.
- Once again, Jackson was the lone dissenter.
What to watch: Another Supreme Court case involving the Securities and Exchange Commission argued last year, could upend the NLRB — and many other federal agencies that enforce laws that protect workers and consumers (i.e., the public) from harmful actions by businesses.
- The case challenges the SEC's use of administrative law judges to hear cases, arguing they violate the right to a jury trial. Some conservatives seem open to the argument.
- The NLRB and many other agencies use these judges, so a broad decision could throw the whole bureaucratic state into question. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on that very soon.
Bonus chart: The most pro-business court in history
Under Chief Justice John Roberts has become the most pro-business court in a century, per an analysis published in 2022. The win rate for businesses going up against non-businesses in the court was 63%.
