Apple takes a bite of the NLRB in 5th Circuit ruling

In the workplace, not all questions are coercive and not all policy enforcements are discriminatory.
Case in point: Apple v. NLRB, in which the 5th Circuit just handed the tech giant a full reversal, rejecting findings by the Board that the company violated the NLRA by:

1. Coercively interrogating an employee about union activity; and

2. Removing union flyers from a breakroom table.

Let's unpack why Apple won, and what it means for employers navigating union-organizing campaigns.

Yes, you can be fired for what you say outside of work… especially when it's hateful.

In Darlingh v. Maddaleni, the Seventh Circuit just upheld the firing of a school counselor who gave a profanity-laced anti-trans tirade at a public rally. She promised "not a single" student under her watch would "ever, ever transition," and made sure to identify herself as a Milwaukee Public Schools employee while doing it. 

She sued, claiming the school district violated her First Amendment rights by terminating her. The 7th Circuit disagreed.

The 7th nominee for The Worst Employer of 2025 is … The Sadistic Chef

A jury just awarded $3.15 million to 22-year-old Andrew DeBellis—a sous chef who, over a brutal 2.5-month stretch, was punched, slapped, kicked, and emotionally destroyed inside the kitchen of fine-dining restaurant Margotto Hawaii.

Not by a rogue coworker.
Not in a moment of heat.
But daily.
By his executive chef—and with full knowledge of the owner.

The details are appalling. 

Title VII requires harm; not just hate

This week, America First Legal, a right-wing conservative organization founded by Stephen Miller, fired off a letter to the EEOC accusing the Los Angeles Dodgers and Guggenheim Partners of violating Title VII because of their publicly commitment to workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But there's the legal twist: AFL didn't name a single person who was denied a job, demoted, fired, or otherwise harmed. Nor did it claim any injury to itself. 

The "Restoring Biological Truth to the Workplace Act" isn't about truth, it's about protecting bigotry

It's called the Restoring Biological Truth to the Workplace Act.

But let's be honest: it's just a license to discriminate.

Senator Jim Banks' recently introduced bill isn't about truth. It's about control. And cruelty. It would allow employees to misgender their transgender colleagues with impunity and prohibit employers from enforcing any workplace policies that require respect for a person's gender identity.

You want to avoid a labor union in your business? Then don't do this.

Two pediatricians at Cleveland's University Hospitals used an internal physician directory to contact colleagues about forming a union. In response, they say that UH disciplined them for trying to unionize. They've filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees' rights to engage in concerted activity—including organizing a union and discussing it with co-workers. That protection applies whether you're a warehouse worker or a pediatric subspecialist.

WIRTW #764: the 'substack' edition

Introducing Authoritarian Alarm: 

A New Home for a Critical Conversation

For the past 18+ years, I've written about the intersection of law, policy, and the American workplace. But more and more, the news I feel compelled to cover—and the commentary I'm driven to write—has expanded far beyond employment law and HR drama.

Because the truth is, something much bigger is happening in this country.

America today barely resembles the nation it claims to be. In our institutions, our politics, and even our public discourse, we're beginning to mirror the authoritarianism we've spent the last 249 years claiming to oppose. We're becoming what the Founding Fathers created this country to resist.

So I've launched something new: Authoritarian Alarm—a Substack newsletter dedicated to tracking America’s quickening slide into authoritarianism. My first post is now available: We've become everything we've fought against for 249 years.

If you've valued my perspective on these issues before, I hope you'll join me there. Subscribe, share, and help me sound the alarm.

Because silence is complicity.
And democracy doesn't defend itself.

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👉 Subscribe now for free to Authoritarian Alarm: https://jonhyman.substack.com

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Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.