U.S. labor agency has power over state militias, Supreme Court rules
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(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday said a U.S. agency that oversees labor issues in the federal workforce can force the Ohio National Guard and other state militias to bargain with unions.
The court in a 7-2 decision penned by Justice Clarence Thomas said state militias act as federal agencies when they employ technicians who serve both civilian and military roles, so the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has jurisdiction over them with respect to those workers.
The justices rejected Ohio's arguments that the U.S. Department of Defense, and not state militias, should be responsible for bargaining with unions that represent technicians, who perform a variety of mechanical and clerical work.
States operate their own National Guards but are required by federal law to have them and to hire technicians who are considered employees of the Department of Defense.
Thomas wrote for the court that because of that requirement, state militias act on behalf of the Department of Defense when they employ the technicians, making them federal agencies under the purview of the FLRA.
The office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, and the FLRA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ohio was appealing a 2021 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the FLRA has the power to hear disputes between the National Guard and unions and upheld a FLRA decision finding that the Ohio National Guard violated federal labor law in 2016 by abruptly ending its 45-year bargaining relationship with a union.
The two other federal appeals to consider the issue — the 5th and D.C. Circuits — had ruled the same way.
In a dissenting opinion on Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito said the FLRA only has power over federal agencies and that National Guards do not become federal agencies merely by being delegated specific tasks.
"Just because A is designated to exercise the authority of B, it does not follow that A is B," Alito wrote, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The case is Ohio Adjutant General's Department v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 21-1454.
For Ohio: Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers
For the FLRA: Nicole Reaves of the U.S. Department of Justice
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