The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that litigation involving Amazon, Inc. at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) should be stayed over claims that the NLRB violated the U.S. Constitution. Amazon had sued the NLRB in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, arguing that the labor board “violates bedrock constitutional principles of separation of powers” by serving as both prosecutor and judge after the NLRB rejected Amazon’s objections to its first union election at a Staten Island warehouse. Amazon sought an emergency injunction to halt the NLRB’s litigation of a refusal to bargain case within the agency but appealed to the Fifth Circuit late last week when the district judge failed to rule on the issue. Amazon’s lawsuit contends that NLRB members are unconstitutionally protected from being fired by the president, and that the quasi-judicial structure of the agency undermines employers’ right to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment.
