NTEU Files Brief in Supreme Court Case

NTEU filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court today urging it to allow interested parties, like NTEU, to go directly to federal district court when challenging wrongful executive branch actions.

In fighting for our members’ rights, NTEU has sometimes been blocked from filing suit directly in federal court. In our challenge to the May 2018 anti-union Executive Orders, for example, an appellate court ruled that NTEU had to bring its challenge first to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). The drawback to this approach is that agencies like the FLRA have limited authority and cannot, unlike courts, declare executive branch actions unconstitutional or issue injunctions. The process can also take many years.

The union addresses this jurisdictional problem in today’s friend-of-the-court brief. The suit before the Supreme Court was brought by a private company challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s authority. NTEU—like the petitioner—argues that some disputes, including federal labor disputes, are properly brought directly in court and not before administrative agencies.