Lawyers for Amazon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX argued before a federal appeals court on Monday that National Labor Relations Board The structure is unconstitutional, advancing a legal battle that could continue into the Trump administration where Musk is expected to be To oversee the reduction of bureaucratic costs.
A panel of three judges in Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals In New Orleans, I heard separate oral arguments in the SpaceX and Amazon lawsuits, which… Two companies started After the labor agency filed complaints against them in disputes over workers’ rights and union organization.
A ruling in favor of the companies could dramatically diminish — or cripple — the nearly century-old agency charged with enforcing labor laws and settling disputes. Work-related complaints Workers file a lawsuit against their employers. The case may eventually reach the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority and has issued its rulings Limiting the powers of government agencies,
The three appellate judges who heard Monday’s arguments questioned the legal maneuver by Amazon and SpaceX to move their cases to the Fifth Circuit, where jurists nominated by Republican presidents dominate the appeals court.
An NLRB attorney confirmed during the hearing that the two companies filed their appeal after lower courts did not issue rulings within the required deadlines.
Michael Keneally, a lawyer for SpaceX, responded by saying that the government was “relying too much on procedural objections” because of the alleged weakness of its legal argument, a claim that drew some opposition from the committee.
“This sounds to me like an argument that the procedure doesn’t matter if you win on the merits,” said Judge James E. Graves Jr., an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
SpaceX, Musk’s space technology company, sued the NLRB in January after the labor agency accused the company of illegally firing employees who wrote an open letter critical of Musk and created the impression that workers’ activities were being monitored.
Among other claims, the company argued in its complaint that the agency’s actions deprived it of the right to a jury trial.
Musk, the richest person in the world, has become more influential in the past few months after pumping an estimated $200 million through his political action committee to help elect Donald Trump as president.
After his election, Trump appointed Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the campaign New efficiency committee Focused on cutting costs across the federal government. Musk said the new administration will have a “mandate to remove the mountain of stifling regulations that do not serve the public good.”
Amazon’s lawsuit against the NLRB is related to the company’s objections to it Union elections Which took place in a warehouse in New York City in April 2022. The retail giant has accused the agency of improperly interfering in that election, in part by filing a lawsuit against the company to reinstate a fired regulator near the start of voting.
Ultimately, the Amazon Workers Union won the election to represent the workers, but Amazon refused to come to the negotiating table.
The company’s lawyers argued in the lawsuit that the NLRB board members who allowed the agency’s complaint later “acted as judges” by refusing to review Amazon’s objections, which were also brought before them. Amazon’s lawyers asserted that the agency’s structure is unconstitutional because board members are protected from impeachment by the US president, among other things.
In a statement issued before Monday’s hearing, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said it is “not new for large corporations to challenge the NLRB’s authority to enforce workers’ rights so that they are not held accountable for their violations” of labor law.
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