Obama Regime NLRB Seeks to Overturn Voter-Approved Secret Ballot Laws in Arizona, South Dakota

(CNSNews.com) – The National Labor Relations Board is seeking an unprecedented expansion of powers in a lawsuit to overturn voter-approved constitutional amendments in at least two states guaranteeing the secret ballot for union elections, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said.

The NRLB contends it is perfectly within the agency’s jurisdiction to bring a “preemptive” lawsuit against the states.

The agency announced it would move forward with litigation against the states of South Dakota and Arizona to strike the laws from the states that voters approved last November to guarantee employees have the right to vote via secret ballot on whether to form unions at their workplace. The states of South Carolina and Utah passed similar amendments to their constitutions.

“Many lawyers will tell you it [the secret ballot] is an implied right within their state constitutions,” Jackley told CNSNews.com.

“But this made it clear this is going to be an explicit right, a fundamental right, guaranteeing the right to the secret ballot for a variety of things: For elected officials such as myself, for the referendum process or ballot initiatives, and for employment representatives. That certainly has been the touchiest point with the AFL-CIO that had filed that initial state court lawsuit,” Jackley added.

The AFL-CIO in South Dakota sought to prevent the measure from going to the ballot after it was passed by the legislature. The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled the measure could go to voters.

The ballot measure passed in the four states by wide margins in November. In Arizona, 61 percent of voters approved the measure. In South Carolina, 86 percent of the voters backed the secret ballot amendment. In South Dakota, 79 percent of the voters approved the amendment, and in Utah the initiative was approved by 60 percent of voters.

NLRB acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon told the four attorney generals in an April 22 letter, “I have directed my staff to initiate lawsuits in federal court seeking to invalidate Arizona Constitutional Article 2 S. 37 and South Dakota Constitutional Article 6 S.28 as preempted by operation of the NLRA [National Labor Relations Act] (29 U.S.C. 151) and the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution (U.S. Const. Art. VI., cl. 2). I expect that they will do so shortly.”

Solomon said it would not be efficient to take action against all four states at this time, leaving the door open for future suits against South Carolina and Utah.

“The Obama administration was not able to deliver, so it is using its National Labor Relations Board and any other group of unelected bureaucrats it can in time to deliver labor for the president’s reelection campaign,” Gage told CNSNews.com. “They look at it as their mission to partner with big labor unions to force people into labor unions. Workers rights to vote on the secret ballot are something that affects people’s everyday lives.”