Posts tagged separation of powers
Unions, cities, nonprofits sue to block Trump workforce cuts
May 1, 2025 // Musk has tempered his original goal for DOGE to slash $1 trillion from government spending, saying this month it was on track to cut $150 billion this year. The Trump administration has faced more than 200 lawsuits challenging its policies, with a significant number calling the president's directives unconstitutional. The case is American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO et al v Trump et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-03698.
California Transportation Worker Files Lawsuit Challenging Constitutionality of National Labor Relations Board
June 17, 2024 // Lawsuit joins challenges by three other employees against NLRB on grounds that structure of agency violates Article II of the Constitution
Amazon becomes latest company to argue US labor board is unconstitutional
February 20, 2024 // Amazon has become the latest company to argue that the structure of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) violates the U.S. Constitution, following the lead of SpaceX and Trader Joe’s. The e-commerce giant claimed in a recent filing that the labor board’s case, which accuses the company of illegally retaliating against unionizing workers, should be dismissed because the board itself is unconstitutional. Amazon argued that the NLRB’s structure “violates the separation of powers” because administrative law judges and board members are largely insulated from presidential oversight and removal, “impeding the executive power” provided in Article II of the Constitution.
Commentary: Is the NLRB Unconstitutional? The Courts May Finally Decide.
December 6, 2023 // While many agencies act politically, the Board is a special problem. Unlike other agencies, the Board makes almost all its decisions not through rulemaking, but through one-off panel decisions. That means it can change policy much faster. The “law” can swing wildly from case to case. In fact, according to one study, the Board during the Obama administration reversed a group of decisions that had been on the books for more than a collective 4,500 years. The Board’s constitutional flaws are also different from those of other agencies. For example, in a recent case involving the SEC, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the agency’s structure violated the Seventh Amendment. That was because the SEC can impose civil fines—the kind of claims that must be tried to a jury. The Board has no authority to impose civil fines, so it doesn’t have the same Seventh Amendment problem. Its problem instead comes instead from its unchecked power to decide cases. It controls the outcome in disputes affecting a range of private rights. And those disputes, according to Article III of the Constitution, should be decided only by real judges.
OREGON LEGISLATIVE STAFF OPPOSED TO FORCED UNIONIZATION GET THEIR DAY IN COURT
June 6, 2023 // “We have an executive agency, the Employment Relations Board, interfering in the business of the legislative branch of government by making itself the authority on the wages, hours and working conditions of legislative assistants,” said Freedom Foundation attorney Rebekah Schultheiss. “By placing all Legislative Assistants — regardless of political party — into the same bargaining unit, ERB has destroyed the essential trust between Legislators and their Assistants.” Earlier on in the litigation, twenty-eight Oregon Lawmakers and staffers additionally filed an amicus brief supporting the Freedom Foundation’s efforts to get the Employment Relations Board ruling overturned, claiming that the certification of a political union as representative of legislative assistants “will have a paralyzing effect on Legislators.”