Amicus Spotlight: Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney

Right-wing groups linked to Charles Koch and Leonard Leo are backing Starbucks’ assault on the National Labor Relations Board.

Today, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, a major labor rights case that could weaken the powers of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

The case revolves around the brewing unionization movement at Starbucks – a notoriously anti-worker company that has employed brutal union-busting tactics. In February 2022, several pro-union Starbucks workers in Memphis were terminated by management after drafting a letter to Starbucks’ CEO announcing their intent to unionize. After the Starbucks Workers United union filed an unfair labor practice complaint over the workers’ termination, the NLRB secured an injunction from a federal judge in August 2022 to reinstate the workers. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the injunction in August 2023, finding that the NLRB had shown reasonable cause to believe that Starbucks’ firing of the “Memphis Seven” was an illegal attempt to interfere with workers’ right to organize. 

Starbucks, which has reinstated the Memphis Seven, appealed the Sixth Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing that the Sixth Circuit’s “two-factor test” to secure an injunction is too relaxed. In January 2024, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Starbucks’ appeal. Workers United has warned that Starbucks’ appeal could enable the Roberts Court (which has repeatedly gutted workers’ rights) to weaken the NLRB’s ability to hold union-busting companies accountable. Jennifer Abruzzo, Biden’s transformative NLRB General Counsel, has called injunctions “one of the most important tools available to effectively enforce labor law.” 

An RDP review of amicus brief filings in Starbucks v. McKinney finds at least 3 petitioner-side amicus filers have significant ties to conservative “court-whisperers”, such as Charles Koch and Leonard Leo.

• U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the country’s largest lobbying group, representing some of Corporate America’s biggest price-gougers and repeat-offenders. The Chamber spends millions annually on federal lobbying and dark money political contributions to promote an anti-worker agenda.
  • Anti-union billionaire Charles Koch, who has brought Justice Thomas to his network’s fundraising retreats, has given large amounts of money to bankroll the Chamber’s work, including a 2021 grant of $817,500 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and a 2022 grant of $1.65 million to fund the Chamber’s JobSIDE initiative. 
  • Former Chamber president Thomas Donohue and current Chamber board member Frank VanderSloot are both members of the Horatio Alger Association, an exclusive circle of wealthy business elites that has lavished Clarence Thomas with luxury gifts and received unprecedented access to the Supreme Court building. 

• NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE (NCLA): NCLA is a conservative litigation group that champions a wide array of right-wing causes, from overturning Chevron deference to attacking gun safety laws. NCLA has supported Elon Musk’s attacks on the NLRB and has previously defended Federalist publisher Ben Domenech and mega-corporation Oracle in cases against the NLRB and Department of Labor, respectively.
  • Charles Koch is a major funder of NCLA. The Charles Koch Foundation provided $1 million of the $1.6 million NCLA raised in its first year of operation, and the Charles Koch Foundation and Charles Koch Institute gave NCLA a total of $5 million from 2017 to 2021. The New Civil Liberties Alliance is also an associate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network. NCLA’s president Mark Chenoweth previously served as in-house counsel for Koch Industries 
  • NCLA received $1 million in 2020 from Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund. Leo played an instrumental role in the Supreme Court confirmations of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and has attended luxury trips with the Justices, 

• BUCKEYE INSTITUTE: Buckeye is an Ohio-based right-wing advocacy group that has opposed minimum wage hikes and aggressively supported so-called “right-to-work” laws, which undermine unions and depress workers’ wages. Days after the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. AFSCME ruling, which barred public sector unions from collecting “agency fees” from non-union members, Buckeye sued to overturn decades-old union negotiation laws in three states.
  • Charles Koch is a major funder of the Buckeye Institute. The Buckeye Institute received just over $650,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation between 2016 and 2020, including a $250,000 grant in 2018, and a $100,000 grant in 2019. It additionally received over $300,000 from the Charles Koch Institute between 2018 and 2022, the bulk of that money coming from a $212,000 grant in 2020 and a $50,000 grant in 2021. The Buckeye Institute is also an affiliate member of the Koch-linked State Policy Network. 

Learn more about the right-wing moneyed interests influencing the Supreme Court through amicus briefs at SupremeTransparency.org.