By: Marc R. Jacobs, Esq.
On January 13, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150’s bid for the full circuit court to rehear the September 2, 2014 panel decision upholding the Indiana law. Five of the ten active judges on the Seventh Circuit dissented from the decision not to rehear the case. Under the court’s rules, because a majority of the active judges did not vote for rehearing, the panel’s decision stands.
We discussed the panel’s decision and the issues that it raised in a September 4, 2014 post [here], in which the panel (despite a vigorous dissent from Judge Diane Wood) held that the Indiana law was not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and did not violate the United States Constitution. As we also reported in a November 7 post [here], the Indiana Supreme Court has upheld the Indiana Right to Work Law, ruling that the law did not violate the Indiana Constitution.
In light of the January 13 ruling, the union’s sole remaining avenue of judicial redress is to the United States Supreme Court. Although the union has not formally announced its plans, a petition to the Supreme Court is likely.