‘Defective to its Core’ Another judge enjoins another Obama rule, this one from Labor.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/defective-to-its-core-1467156008
That’s how a federal judge in Texas on Monday summed up the Labor Department’s new “persuader” rule as he imposed a preliminary injunction, and he could have been describing the Obama Administration’s entire regulatory apparatus.
The National Federation of Independent Business and 10 states sued to block the rule, which was set to take effect on July 1. Judge Samuel Cummings said the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed” on all five of their claims including lack of statutory authority, abuse of discretion, and violation of First Amendment rights, due process and the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
The rule putatively updates the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which requires “persuaders” hired by employers to communicate directly with workers to disclose their clients, services and compensation. The real goal is to muzzle employers and help union organizers.
Labor in effect eliminates the law’s “Advice Exemption” that shields privileged attorney-client communications by mandating disclosures from employers and anyone engaged in “actions, conduct, or communications that are undertaken with an object, explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, to affect an employee’s decisions regarding his or her representation or collective bargaining rights.”
As the judge notes, the “use of words like ‘implicit’ and ‘affect’ are too broad,” leaving employers and consultants to “guess” what activities are covered. Merely drafting employment policies could be a persuader activity. CONTINUE AT SITE
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