Deep sigh. How dumb must all the judges and justices that have heard NLRB matters, implicitly blessing the structure, over the agency\u2019s 90 year history feel right now?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another win for Donald Trump\u2019s uniquely expansive view of presidential power, and gives the Supreme Court yet another opportunity <\/a>to bend to that vision of the presidency.<\/p>\n Read the full decision below.<\/p>\n The post Fifth Circuit Takes Sledgehammer To Labor Rights<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n So long labor rights, we hardly knew ye. <\/p>\n Today the Fifth Circuit issued a decision neutering the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s ability to prosecute unfair labor practice. In a decision authored by Judge Don Willett, the circuit court furthest to the right decided the NLRB\u2019s structure is likely unconstitutional. In the matter before the Fifth Circuit three separate employers \u2014 SpaceX, Energy Transfer and Aunt Bertha \u2014 argued that the limits on president\u2019s ability to remove board members and administrative law judges are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n And the panel agreed. They affirmed the injunctions freezing the enforcement actions against the employers, writing, \u201cThe Constitution does not countenance unlawful power. And when the Constitution draws boundaries, neither agency expedience nor institutional inertia can erase them.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, cautioning against over-reliance on Humphrey\u2019s Executor<\/em>, the current conservative punching bag<\/a>, Willett holds in this consolidated action that federal law\u2019s removal protections for board members and agency judges likely violates the constitution. Willett writes, \u201cThe Employers have made their case and should not have to choose between compliance and constitutionality. When an agency\u2019s structure violates the separation of powers, the harm is immediate\u2014and the remedy must be, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Deep sigh. How dumb must all the judges and justices that have heard NLRB matters, implicitly blessing the structure, over the agency\u2019s 90 year history feel right now?<\/p>\n It\u2019s another win for Donald Trump\u2019s uniquely expansive view of presidential power, and gives the Supreme Court yet another opportunity <\/a>to bend to that vision of the presidency.<\/p>\n Read the full decision below.<\/p>\n 2378000-2378777-document (9)<\/a>Download<\/a><\/p>\n So long labor rights, we hardly knew ye. Today the Fifth Circuit issued a decision neutering the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s ability to prosecute unfair labor practice. In a decision authored by Judge Don Willett, the circuit court furthest to the right decided the NLRB\u2019s structure is likely unconstitutional. In the matter before the Fifth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-clawDm.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-168313957-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
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\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"