National Roundup

Texas
Judge blocks NLRB rule over forming unions
A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule by the National Labor Relations Board that would have made it easier for millions of workers to form unions at big companies.

The rule, which was due to go into effect Monday, would have set new standards for determining when two companies should be considered “joint employers” in labor negotiations.

Under the current NLRB rule, which was passed by a Republican-dominated board in 2020, a company like McDonald’s isn’t considered a joint employer of most of its workers since they are directly employed by franchisees.

The new rule would have expanded that definition to say companies may be considered joint employers if they have the ability to control — directly or indirectly — at least one condition of employment. Conditions include wages and benefits, hours and scheduling, the assignment of duties, work rules and hiring.

The NLRB argued a change is necessary because the current rule makes it too easy for companies to avoid their legal responsibility to bargain with workers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups — including the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Retail Federation — sued the NLRB in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas in November to block the rule.

They argued the new rule would upend years of precedent and could make companies liable for workers they don’t employ at workplaces they don’t own.

In his decision Friday granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a summary judgement, U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker concluded that the NLRB’s new rule would be “contrary to law” and that it was “arbitrary and capricious” in regard to how it would change the existing rule.

Barker found that by establishing an array of new conditions to be used to determine whether a company meets the standard of a joint employer, the NLRB’s new rule exceeds “the bounds of the common law.”

The NLRB is reviewing the court’s decision and considering its next steps in the case, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

“The District Court’s decision to vacate the Board’s rule is a disappointing setback, but is not the last word on our efforts to return our joint-employer standard to the common law principles that have been endorsed by other courts,” said Lauren McFerran, the NLRB’s chairman.

Washington
U.S. judge rejects challenge to law that could hold gun makers liable for shootings
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected a challenge to a Washington state law that cleared the way for lawsuits against the gun industry in certain cases.

The measure was one of three bills signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last year seeking to address gun violence.

It requires the industry to exercise reasonable controls in making, selling and marketing weapons, including steps to keep guns from being sold to people known to be dangerous or to straw buyers. It allows the attorney general or private parties, such as the family members of shooting victims, to sue for violations or damages under the state’s Consumer Protection Act.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association, challenged the law in U.S. District Court in Spokane, saying the measure violates the Second Amendment as well as the free-speech rights of its members.

U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke rejected the lawsuit in a decision Friday, saying the organization had not established legal standing to challenge the measure. She noted that its members were neither being sued under the law nor had expressed an intent to violate its terms.

“This law protects Washingtonians from gun violence by ensuring that gun industry members face real accountability when their irresponsible conduct harms our communities,” Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is running for governor, said in a news release.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, based in Connecticut, did not immediately return a message seeking comment after business hours Friday.

In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, shielding the gun industry from liability in some circumstances. States, however, are allowed to create exemptions from that federal law, Ferguson said. Washington and four other states — Delaware, New York, New Jersey and California — have done so.

The other bills signed by Inslee last year included one banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and another imposing a 10-day waiting period on firearms purchases.

Legal challenges to the sales ban as well as to the state’s ban on the manufacture and sale of high-capacity magazines, adopted in 2022, are pending.

There have been 10 mass killings — nine of them shootings — in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 47 people have died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

Missouri
Lawyer says man thought his mom was an intruder when he shot and killed her
OLIVETTE, Mo. (AP) — A 25-year-old Missouri man has been charged with shooting and killing his mother as she tried to enter the back door of their home.

Jaylen Johnson’s attorney, William Goldstein, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Johnson believed his mother was an intruder when she tried to enter the home in the St. Louis suburb of Olivette around 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

Olivette police said 56-year-old Monica McNichols-Johnson died at the house even though Johnson’s girlfriend tried to help her after she was shot.

Goldstein said the 25-year-old Johnson immediately called 911 after he shot his mother, and he has been distraught ever since.

“He hasn’t stopped crying,” Goldstein said.

Prosecutors charged Johnson with manslaughter and armed criminal action, and his bail was set at $100,000.

Johnson is a former college football player who is employed and has no criminal history. Goldstein said Johnson kept a gun for protection after having been robbed at gunpoint before.