A look at KBJ’s record on labor, immigration cases

Feb 28, 2022

With help from Shayna Greene

QUICK FIX

— President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court. She's issued several favorable rulings to union groups as a federal judge.

— Unlike in the 1970s, inflation has yet to bring spiraling wage hikes, but that possibility continues to be a top worry for economists.

— Starbucks workers in Mesa, Ariz., voted Friday to unionize. It's the third recent unionization vote and the first outside of Western New York.

GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Feb. 28. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.

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Driving the Day

SCOTUS SCUTTLEBUTT: President Joe Biden on Friday formally announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, as his selection to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

The move was not unexpected. After all, just last year, Biden tapped her to fill now-Attorney General Merrick Garland's seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the second-most influential court in the country. Jackson has all the top-flight credentials expected of a modern Justice — including previously clerking for Breyer, for an added dose of symmetry. (You may recall that also was a point in Brett Kavanaugh's favor when Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018.)

Unions wasted little time joining other Democrat-allied groups in praising the selection: "Judge Brown Jackson has a long record of protecting the constitutional rights of workers and everyday people," Sarah Nelson, head of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a statement that was echoed by several others.

Some labor activists had expressed reservations about one of the other candidates on Biden's SCOTUS shortlist, J. Michelle Childs, given her professional background at law firm that represented corporate clients in discrimination and sexual harrassment suits.

Having only been on the circuit court since mid-June, Jackson did not accumulate an extensive record as an appellate judge. In early February, however, she did author the opinion nixing a Trump-era effort from the Federal Labor Relations Authority to expand the types of workplace changes government agencies can make outside of collective bargaining.

Prior to that, she also served for several years as a district court judge in D.C. and had several labor and immigration-related cases come before her. Jackson shot down executive orders from then-President Donald Trump to constrain the power of federal employee unions, as well as a bid to fast-track deportation of undocumented immigrations.

However, both of those rulings were overturned by a higher court— blemishes that are already being raised by Republicans opposed to her nomination. But she did side with the Trump administration in a case brought by environmental groups seeking to forestall the creation of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Jackson has also spoken about the difficulty of being a working mother earlier in her career when she was an attorney at a corporate law firm.

And a fun fact: Jackson is an erstwhile member of the Fourth Estate. Her first job out of college was at TIME Magazine in the early '90s.

NO SIGNS OF INFLATION SPIRAL, YET: Prices are up. So are wages. So far, economists say, they're not feeding off of each other in a significant way — meaning the country is avoiding the self-perpetuating wage-price spiral that gutted the economy when inflation surged in the 1970s, Eleanor reports.

To be sure: Economists and policymakers in Washington are watching closely for signs that could soon change. If it does, inflation risks spiking even more dramatically than it has already, frustrating voters and dealing Democrats a weak hand to play just months before the midterm elections.

Historical context: The '70s wage-price spiral was seeded by a surge in government spending to fund the Vietnam War and President Lyndon Johnson's social policy agenda. Consumer demand rose and, in turn, prices — yet former President Richard Nixon pressured the Federal Reserve not to intercede ahead of the 1972 election, keeping interest rates low. Eventually, employers and employees foresaw nothing but rising costs and began planning for price and wage increases, which drove each to new heights.

How this time is different: Declining union membership and growing import competition could help head off the same cycle this time around. And the Fed is poised to raise interest rates next month. But inflation concerns are great enough that calls for the central bank to act more decisively have grown louder, including from Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who asserted that the Fed needs to "stop pussyfooting around."

On the Hill

HOUSE TEES UP STAFFER UNIONIZATION HEARING: The House Administration Committee will hold a midweek hearing on congressional staffers' effort to form a union. The movement has quickly generated steam in recent weeks, particularly among Democrats.

OCWR weighs in: Wednesday's hearing comes after the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights responded to Chair Zoe Lofgren's request for a review of the pending regulations from the last unionization go-round a quarter-century ago.

The office said in a letter that it had "determined no changes are needed for the House to extend federal protections to legislative branch employees who wish to unionize and collectively bargain."

Around the Agencies

IRS UNION WARNS THINGS CAN GET WORSE: A top union official warned that reassigning IRS workers to help process delayed refunds, returns and mail from taxpayers that's piled up since last year could cause other work backups going forward, our Aaron Lorenzo reports.

The IRS started taking in tax returns this year with a backlog of at least 22 million unprocessed returns and other correspondence from taxpayers from the prior year, following work disruptions at the agency during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig is temporarily shifting more than 1,000 employees to processing roles to help reduce the unprecedented accumulation. He might move more workers, too, as part of what he's calling "surge teams" dedicated to the backlog.

But such moves will come at a cost to other IRS efforts, warned Doreen Greenwald, national executive vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

In the Workplace

CDC LOOSENS INDOOR MASK GUIDANCE FOR MANY: On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the majority of Americans can now choose to take off their masks in indoor public settings, including in schools, our Erin Banco and Sarah Owermohle report.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said data supports state and local officials, schools and businesses in 70 percent of the country updating their guidelines to allow people the option to wear a mask. The agency released guidance that separates the country into three levels — low, medium and high — based on Covid-19's impact on hospital capacity and the extent of severe disease cases.

A notable omission: Throughout its guidelines, the CDC did not specify whether people who were unvaccinated should still wear masks.

RELATED: "Capitol leaders rescind mask mandate ahead of State of the Union," our Katherine Tully-McManus reports.

EASILY ACCESSIBLE VACCINE MANDATE WORKAROUNDS: Health care employees looking to skirt the federal vaccine mandate and claim a religious exemption need to do little more than submit a short request to human resources, our Rachael Levy and Megan Messerly report.

Hospital officials from several states said they created simple forms to meet the administration's mandate, which requires all health workers, including those not directly involved in patient care, to either get vaccinated or have a hospital-approved religious or medical exemption.

While the federal government doesn't track the number of religious exemptions, anecdotal evidence indicates they are widespread in health care settings.

BIDEN PLANS RETURN TO FEDERAL OFFICES: The Biden administration is prepping to nudge federal employees to return to in-person work in the coming days, Axios' Hans Nichols, Glen Johnson and Stef W. Kight report.

"President Biden wants to lead by example in arguing that most Americans can safely return to the workplace. Biden's team is discussing the best way to send a clear back-to-work signal to America — perhaps in the State of the Union address on Tuesday, but probably in a separate COVID speech later in March," the trio write.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

Unions

THIRD STARBUCKS LOCATION VOTES TO UNIONIZE: The movement to organize Starbucks workers notched a significant victory Friday after employees at a Mesa, Ariz., location voted overwhelmingly to unionize.

The vote was not close — 25-3 in favor of forming a union, with three contested ballots — and it marks the third winning vote in recent months. In addition to concerns about workplace conditions cited by employees at other stores, it appears the treatment of a well-liked store manager diagnosed with cancer played a role in workers' calculus at the Mesa location.

The Arizona Starbucks election is the first outside of Buffalo, N.Y., which has been the frontline for an organizing effort that has now spread to more than 100 locations across more than half the country.

The unionization vote drew plaudits from progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who said it's a sign that pro-union sentiment is "spreading like wildfire" among Starbucks workers.

Several other Buffalo stores have begun to cast ballots, with more votes on the horizon across several major cities, further testing the campaign's momentum.

What We're Reading

— "Questions emerge on future of Ukrainians in U.S. and refugees abroad," from Border/Lines.

— " Epic Games is making hundreds of temp testers into full employees with benefits," from The Verge.

— "Friction Grows as MLB CBA Talks Take a Step in the Wrong Direction," from Sports Illustrated.

— " American Revolution Anniversary Group Is Accused in Lawsuit of Running 'Boys Club,'" from the Wall Street Journal.

— " For These Hotel Workers, The Pandemic Recession Still Hasn't Ended," from HuffPost.

— "Uber revamps driver pay algorithm in large U.S. pilot to attract drivers," from Reuters.

— "Insiders say RAINN, the nation's foremost organization for victims of sexual assault, is in crisis over allegations of racism and sexism ," from Business Insider.

— " Fed's Preferred Inflation Measure Reaches Fastest Pace Since 1983," from The Wall Street Journal.

— "Teachers unions in Minneapolis, St. Paul set 10-day strike warning," from the Star Tribune.

—"How Hollywood Unions Wield 'Do Not Work' Orders Against Employers," from the Hollywood Reporter.

— " Wisconsin union members rally over USPS vehicle contract," from the Associated Press.