Court Opinion

ID: 9481559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:22:56.800126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:24.245181
License: Public Domain

McMILLAN, Senior District Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
Difficulty of enforcement and justified vexation at the NLRB should not prevent this court from trying to do right.
A ruling on the merits is of course long deferred, and relief is hard to provide. Nevertheless, the NLRB — and the court— have a responsibility to all the parties. The NLRB has, at last, met its responsibility. The court can legitimately condemn the NLRB’s delay without wiping out or postponing the remedy that they have, at long last, directed.
There is no apparent reason to expect that a case-laden administrative agency will clean up its act if we deny enforcement of the order they have now produced.
I would join in censuring the NLRB’s delay as roundly as this court chooses; but I would not refuse to decide the rights of the parties simply because the NLRB has been slow to act.
We should decide this case on its merits and leave the further policing or censure, if any, of the NLRB to another day.
Order
June 3, 1991
Before ARNOLD and FAGG, Circuit Judges, and McMILLAN,** Senior District Judge.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has asked the court to change its opinion in this case, 931 F.2d 21, by deleting a passage containing dialogue between the court and counsel for the NLRB. Id. at 23.
The NLRB’s request is surprising to say the least. The NLRB pointedly informs the court that “[b]y publicly memorializing [counsel’s remarks] the [court] has exposed [counsel] to censure and ... [the NLRB does] not believe [the court] anticipated or desired this result.” The court resents the suggestion that unless the court capitulates to the NLRB’s request, counsel’s career is in jeopardy. The court believes counsel should be commended, not criticized, for answering frankly the question *24put to him by a judge of this court. This is one of the duties of counsel as an officer of the court.
The court has no good reason to think that counsel was acting other than in entire good faith. His statement, therefore, contrary to the NLRB’s view, was not “a serious breach of his responsibility as counsel for the Board.” Indeed, counsel gave a superior oral argument to this court while zealously representing the NLRB. As the NLRB itself acknowledges, counsel “has over twenty years of experience with the government, and ... has a reputation for excellence in appellate advocacy.” Counsel deserves greater respect than he has received from the NLRB in this case. Rather than seeking a scapegoat to carry blame, the NLRB should examine its internal operations and find a solution for its delayed decision-making.
Accordingly, the NLRB’s request for an alteration of the court’s opinion is denied, and the NLRB is specifically cautioned not to penalize counsel for his honesty. If counsel is censured or disadvantaged in any way for his candor, the court reserves the right to take further appropriate action against those responsible.
It is so ordered.

 The HONORABLE JAMES B. McMILLAN, Senior United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.