The signs are all around us that the government envisioned by the Framers—self-rule by the people—is on the decline. At the federal level, life-tenured judges often decide matters that are, or should be, the province of the legislative branch (or the states). In the modern administrative stat…

Across the country, public money pays for government-union officials’ political activities. The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia likely spared public-employee unions a devastating legal defeat. In Scalia’s absence, the 4-4 stalemate in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Assoc…

In prior posts (here and here), I looked at the pro-union agenda of the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board, and the anti-employer policies undertaken by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Department of Labor. The le…

Obama’s employment law agenda consists of laying siege to employers’ management rights. In a prior post, I summarized the one-sided rulings of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, which are seemingly designed to bolster the declining ranks of organized labor in the privat…

When thinking about the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, most observers recall the 2014 decision in NLRB v. Noel Canning, in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Obama’s kangaroo-court “recess appointments”—made when the Senate was not actually in reces…

On Monday, January 11, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a potentially momentous case that challenges the constitutionality of “agency shop” clauses in public-sector union contracts, which require all employees in the bargaining u…

My first two posts in this series discussed, respectively, the origins of the concept of “exclusive representation” in the NLRA and the Supreme Court case law leading up to Abood in 1977. In this post, I will analyze the decision in Abood (which, it will be recalled, was roundly criticized …

My first post delved briefly into the history and significance of the concept of “exclusive representation” in labor law. This post will explore the even more dubious application of the NLRA (private sector) model of collective bargaining (including exclusive representation) to the public se…

With this series of posts, I return to constitutional law issues that SCOTUS will address in the 2015-16 term. One case in particular—Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association—is hugely important and has already generated a great deal of commentary. This site recently hosted an excellen…

The Supreme Court reconsiders a crucial labor precedent. The Supreme Court will soon decide whether a state can force government employees to support a union. In January, the justices heard oral arguments in Harris v.Quinn, a case that could reverse a 37-year-old precedent that greatly empowered …