Seventh Circuit raises eyebrows at challenge to Illinois labor law

A Seventh Circuit panel spent Friday poking holes in a challenge to Illinois' ban on mandatory anti-union ‘captive audience’ meetings, questioning both whether the state labor director even has enforcement power and whether anyone has actually been harmed yet. Attorney Jeffrey Schwab, representing a think tank and trade association, could not name a single worker who had refused to attend such a meeting.

Judge Frank Easterbrook repeatedly pressed on the absence of injury, noting the case looked like preenforcement litigation resting on ‘so many what-if questions.’ The state's assistant attorney general argued the director's authority is merely ministerial and that the law's ambiguity is a matter for state courts, not federal ones, an argument Judge Ripple seemed inclined to entertain.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.