Supreme Court strikes down California’s expansive union access law

The Supreme Court struck down California’s expansive union access law, which had required commercial agricultural property owners to allow unions to come onto their land for up to 3 hours per day 120 days per year in furtherance of organizing campaigns.  The statute went so far as to phrase this as a union’s “right to take access” to the private property. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held the California law was an unlawful taking of the property owner’s land rights, in violation of the Fifth Amendment. A concurrence by Justice Kavanaugh suggests the Court’s holding may not be limited to laws like California’s and may portend a new line of decisions that NLRB decisions requiring access to private property under the NLRA are similarly violations of the Fifth Amendment’s taking clause.

Source: Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, case no. 20-107, 2021 BL 234010 (6/23/2021).