United States Ninth Circuit

As written, the California statute that forbids employers who receive state funds in excess of $10,000 from using such funding to advocate for or against union organizing is preempted by the NLRA; it undermines federal labor policy by altering Congress' design for the collective bargaining process.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/21/2006
• Decided 04/20/2004
• Published 04/20/2004

Judges

• Before MARY M. SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, STEPHEN REINHARDT, ROBERT R. BEEZER, ALEX KOZINSKI, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD, HAWKINS, SIDNEY R. THOMAS, BARRY G. SILVERMAN, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, RAYMOND C. FISHER, RICHARD A. PAEZ, JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, RICHARD R. CLIFTON and CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Stephen P. Berzon, Scott A. Kronland (argued), Stacey M. Leyton, Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain, San Francisco, CA, for the intervenors-appellants., John H. Ferguson, Division of Enforcement Litigation, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae National Labor Relations Board., Daniel V. Yager, McGuiness Norris & Williams, LLP, Washington, DC, for amici curiae Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. and LPA, Inc., Fran M. Layton, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, San Francisco, CA, for amicus curiae South Coast Air Quality Management District.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill Lockyer, Tom Greene, Richard T. Waldow, Angela Sierra (argued), Sacramento, CA, for the defendants-appellants., Bradley W. Kampas (argued), D. Gregory Valenza, Scott Oborne, Jackson Lewis LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiffs-appellees.