Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
South Carolina State Ports Authority, et al. v. National Labor Relations Board, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 23-1059 · judgment July 28, 2023
Before the decision, about 11.1× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a petition filed soon after the judgment below, and a state or local-government petitioner.
Questions presented
To increase pressure on an employer with whom it has a labor dispute (a “primary” employer), a union sometimes decides to coerce or threaten “secondary” employers to stop doing business with the primary employer. This union tactic is called a secondary boycott. In the National Labor Relations Act, Congress outlawed this “dangerous practice of unions,” which expands industrial conflicts by involving neutral employers in union disputes with primary employers. Nat’l Woodwork Mfrs. Ass’n v. NLRB, 386 U.S. 612, 627 (1967). Here, the International Longshoremen’s Association (“ILA”) has a dispute with the South Carolina State Ports Authority (“SCSPA”) over lift-equipment jobs at the Port of Charleston’s new Leatherman Terminal. SCSPA uses state employees not represented by ILA for these jobs, as it has for decades at Charleston’s other terminals. ILA wants these jobs for its members. To get them, ILA filed a $300 million lawsuit, not against SCSPA, but against maritime carriers that called at Leatherman. In conflict with decisions of other courts of appeals and this Court, the Fourth Circuit shielded ILA’s unlawful secondary boycott behind the judicially-created “work preservation” defense, eviscerating the NLRA’s prohibition of this tactic. The questions presented are:
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Whether a union’s unlawful secondary boycott is shielded by the work-preservation defense because the targeted secondary employer could choose to take its business elsewhere and, in that way, can “control” the primary employer’s work assignments.
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Whether a union’s unlawful secondary boycott is shielded by the work-preservation defense even when no bargaining unit jobs are threatened.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Carter G. Phillips
Sidley Austin LLP
For respondent
Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Solicitor General
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences
Amicus briefs
6 cert-stage
Proceedings
- Feb 20 2024Petition DENIED. Justice Kavanaugh would grant the petition for a writ of certiorari.
- Jan 17 2024DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/16/2024.
- Jan 02 2024Letter from counsel for respondent International Longshoremen's Association Local 1422 filed.
- Dec 22 2023Response Requested. (Due January 22, 2024)
- Dec 20 2023DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/5/2024.
- Dec 20 2023Reply of petitioners South Carolina State Ports Authority, et al. filed. (Distributed)
- Dec 06 2023Waiver of right of respondent ILA Local 1422 to respond filed.
- Dec 06 2023Brief of respondent International Longshoremen's Association in opposition filed.
- Dec 06 2023Brief of respondent National Labor Relations Board in opposition filed.
- Nov 17 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including December 6, 2023, for all respondents.
- Nov 15 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response from November 29, 2023 to December 6, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- Oct 30 2023Brief amici curiae of Chamber of Commerce of The United States of America, et al. filed.
- Oct 30 2023Brief amici curiae of Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott filed.
- Oct 30 2023Brief amici curiae of Governor Henry McMaster and Governor Brian Kemp filed.
- Oct 27 2023Brief amicus curiae of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc filed.
- Oct 27 2023Amicus brief of The South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, et al. not accepted for filing (duplicate submission) (November 02, 2023)
- Oct 27 2023Brief amici curiae of The South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, et al. filed.
- Oct 26 2023Brief amici curiae of Georgia and Georgia Ports Authority filed.
- Oct 10 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 29, 2023.
- Oct 06 2023Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 30, 2023 to November 29, 2023, submitted to The Clerk.
- Sep 25 2023Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 30, 2023)