National Labor Relations Board v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago

In National Labor Relations Board v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago (1979), the only case on the legal issue of unions in Roman Catholic schools, a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court affirmed an earlier ruling from the Seventh Circuit that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lacked jurisdiction to mandate collective bargaining between teachers and their secondary school employers. The dispute in Catholic Bishop mirrored, in many respects, developments in the then-recent growth of unions in public education.

The controversy arose after the seemingly bright future of labor relations in Roman Catholic schools received an unexpected boost in 1975, when the NLRB asserted its jurisdiction over union organizing activities in two Catholic secondary schools, one in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois, and the other in the Diocese ...