Abstract
Companies like SpaceX and Amazon are arguing in federal court that the structure of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unconstitutionally protects its Members and administrative law judges (ALJs) from presidential removal. President Donald Trump’s firing of Member Gwynne Wilcox, the ensuing litigation, and the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in an analogous case, Trump v. Slaughter, has kicked the constitutional question of NLRB leadership removal protections into high gear. This Note examines the constitutionality of NLRB Member and ALJ removal protections. Under current Supreme Court precedent, NLRB Member removal protections are likely constitutional. However, the Court has recently signaled its willingness to effectively overturn those decisions. This Note determines further that, despite a circuit split, NLRB ALJ removal protections are likely constitutional. This Note concludes by recommending that, to minimize harmful administrative stays in underlying NLRB cases, Congress should amend the National Labor Relations Act. Specifically, Congress should require that parties challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB’s removal structure pay their opponents’ attorney’s fees if their challenge fails.
Recommended Citation
Clara Goldrich,
Avoiding SpaceX's Giant Leap Backwards for Mankind: Why the NLRB Leadership is Constitutionally Protected and How to Keep It That Way,
91 Brook. L. Rev.
233
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol91/iss1/5