Labor News & Commentary November 13, Second Circuit hears argument on NLRB structure & more

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/november-13-2024/

By Everest Fang

Everest Fang is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news and commentary: Second Circuit hears argument on NLRB structure, California voters reject ban on forced prison labor, and Supreme Court declines request to revisit Garmon preemption.

Yesterday, a Second Circuit panel seemed likely to punt on a nursing home operator’s claim that the insulation of NLRB ALJs from removal is unconstitutional. The panel heard arguments in an appeal by Care Realty of a lower court ruling that declined to block an NLRB case against the company pending the outcome of its lawsuit against the agency. In its lawsuit, Care Realty claims that NLRB ALJs should be subject to at-will removal by the president. The case was the first of its kind to be filed, but the NLRB is now facing similar challenges to its in-house enforcement proceedings in about two dozen lawsuits pending around the country, including cases brought by Amazon and SpaceX. The Second Circuit is the first federal appeals court to hear arguments over the ALJ removal issue. Yesterday, Judges Reena Raggi and Maria Araujo Kahn suggested that because Care Realty has the ability to seek the full board’s review of the ALJ’s decision and then appeal the board’s decision to the Second Circuit, the court lacked jurisdiction over the case.

California voters have rejected a ballot measure to prohibit forced prison labor. Proposition 6 would have amended the state’s constitution to ban involuntary servitude for people in prison. The proposition would have allowed people in prison to choose their jobs, with a related proposal that would have created voluntary work programs within the prison system. The state employs nearly 40,000 people in prison who do a variety of essential work, including fighting wildfires, janitorial work, construction and cleaning. Most earn wages of less than $0.75 an hour. Additionally, more than 65% of people imprisoned in California reported being forced to work, according to the ACLU. As of Monday, while votes were still being counted, 53.8% of voters had rejected the measure, while 46.2% backed it. It had no formal opposition. Multiple states – including Colorado, Tennessee, Alabama and Vermont – have voted to rid their constitutions of forced labor exemptions in recent years, and this week they were joined by Nevada.

FULL story at link above.