Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney

Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, 602 U.S. ___ (2024), was a U.S. Supreme Court case about what standard a court must apply before granting a preliminary injunction requested by the National Labor Relations Board. The Court held that the ordinary four-factor Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council test applies.

Legal background
An injunction is a court order requiring a party to do something or to refrain from doing something. A preliminary injunction is one that lasts until there is a final judgment in the case, at which point the court might grant a permanent injunction under the test recognized by eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006).

Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council (2008) recognized a general four-factor test to be used when considering a request for a preliminary injunction: This is known as the Winter test.
 * 1) whether the plaintiff is likely to succeed on the merits
 * 2) whether the plaintiff is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief
 * 3) whether the balance of equities between the plaintiff and defendant justifies an injunction
 * 4) whether the public interest would be disserved by an injunction

Under section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, when the NLRB is considering a complaint about unfair labor practices, it is empowered to petition a district court "for appropriate temporary relief" while the complaint is pending.

Lower courts were split on whether the Winter test applies to 10(j) injunctions. The Fourth, Seventh, Eight, and Ninth Circuits had held that the NLRB needed to satisfy the Winter test, whereas the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits had held that the NLRB only needed to show "reasonable cause to believe that unfair labor practices have occurred" and that an injunctions would be "just and proper".

Factual background
In 2022, Starbucks fired seven employees who were trying to unionize one of the company's stores in Memphis, Tennessee. Starbucks said that it fired them because they had violated company rules by bringing a television crew into the store after hours. The workers, who called themselves the Memphis Seven, claimed that Starbucks had selectively enforced its policy to retaliate against them for their legally protected union-organizing, filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Attorneys for the Board petitioned a district court to issue an injunction requiring Starbucks to reinstate the fired employees while the Board was considering the complaint.

Opinion of the Court
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, joined by all of the justices except Justice Jackson. The Court held that there is not a special test applied when the National Labor Relations Board requests a preliminary injunction; rather, the ordinary four-factor test from Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council applies.

Dissent in part
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed an opinion concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment.