The NLRB Just Won the Fight Over Where to Fight

Sometimes the most important ruling in a case isn’t about the merits — it’s about the map. The Fifth Circuit quietly granted the NLRB’s request to ship Anheuser-Busch’s challenge over to the Eleventh Circuit. No opinion, no explanation — just an unpublished order handed down by a bipartisan panel of Judges Smith, Southwick, and Douglas.

Why does the Board want the Eleventh Circuit? Because it’s already been there. The underlying fight goes back to a 2012 racial bias and retaliation suit, which Anheuser-Busch tried to force into arbitration. The NLRB blessed that move in 2019 — then the Eleventh Circuit vacated it. This June, the Board reversed course and held the company must withdraw its motion to compel because it carried an “illegal objective.”

Now the Board gets to defend that decision in the very court that set this table. That’s not an accident. That’s good strategy by the NLRB.

For employers: venue is critically important. Where your dispute lands can decide its outcome before the first brief is filed.

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