Katherine H. Hansen of Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss LLP, along with co-counsel Stacey Leyton and Aaron Schaffer-Neitz of Altshuler Berzon LLP, is leading the legal defense for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East in a high-profile constitutional challenge before the Third Circuit, urging the court to reject a New Jersey nursing home’s bid to halt a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case.
The union’s legal team filed a forceful brief Tuesday opposing Spring Creek Rehabilitation and Nursing Center LLC’s request for a preliminary injunction. Spring Creek argues that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional due to removal protections for its members and administrative law judges. But the union warned that granting such an injunction would “render this nation’s labor laws unenforceable” and open the door to disruptive litigation.
Backed by Hansen and her legal team, 1199SEIU urged the Third Circuit to uphold U.S. District Judge Jamel K. Semper’s prior ruling, which denied Spring Creek’s injunction on the grounds that the nursing home failed to show irreparable harm.
Spring Creek’s claims center on the idea that removal protections violate the separation of powers under the Constitution. The union’s brief, however, argued that under Collins v. Yellen and the Third Circuit’s own standards, the facility must show actual harm resulting from those protections—a bar it has not met.
The NLRB, represented by a team of in-house attorneys including Steven Bieszczat and Kevin Flanagan, also opposed the injunction, arguing that the Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits courts from intervening in ongoing labor disputes—even when challenges are framed as constitutional.