Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP partner Katherine Hansen, representing 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East alongside co-counsel Stacey Leyton of Altshuler Berzon LLP, successfully defended the union’s position in a Third Circuit decision holding that employers cannot block National Labor Relations Board proceedings by challenging the agency’s constitutionality.
The three-judge panel determined that Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center’s lawsuit seeking to halt an NLRB action was barred under the Norris-LaGuardia Act, which prohibits federal courts from issuing injunctions in disputes arising from labor conflicts. The court found that Spring Creek’s claims grew directly from an ongoing dispute with 1199SEIU and therefore fell within the Norris-LaGuardia Act’s limits on judicial interference in labor matters.
The ruling affirmed a New Jersey federal court’s denial of an injunction and created a circuit split with the Fifth Circuit, which has permitted similar constitutional challenges to half NLRB actions. Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves agreed with the majority that Spring Creek’s claims lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, but based her concurrence on the employer’s failure to allege injury under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
The case is Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center v. NLRB et al., Case No. 24-3043, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.