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The Impact Of Pacific Lutheran On Collective Bargaining At Catholic Colleges And Universities, Maryann Parker, Saerom Park

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

In 1979, the Supreme Court found that teachers at a Catholic parochial school were exempt from the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) because of First Amendment religious infringement risks. Subsequently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has faced controversy over its efforts to delineate an appropriate test for the religious exemption in the higher education context. This uncertainty over the NLRB’s test has resulted in time-consuming litigation and hampered faculty’s ability to organize at schools where Board jurisdiction would not present a significant risk of First Amendment infringement. This paper argues that the Board’s recent decision in Pacific Lutheran University …