Starbucks Wins Fifth Circuit Appeal of NLRB Subpoena Ruling (1)

The National Labor Relations Board was wrong to rule that Starbucks Corp. violated federal labor law with overly broad subpoenas that went to workers in a separate unfair labor practice case that it later won, a federal appeals court ruled.

The NLRB incorrectly took a legal test that normally is used to decide whether to quash subpoenas and repurposed it to determine civil liability, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday.

The decision clarifies the Fifth Circuit’s legal test for determining whether employers commit an unfair labor practice by obtaining NLRB-issued subpoenas seeking information that’s protected by the National Labor Relations Act. The board should evaluate whether the company’s conduct at issue would tend to be coercive based on the totality of the circumstances, the appeals court said.

The court vacated the board’s ruling and sent the case back for it to reconsider under the correct standard.

Starbucks filed its appeal in the Fifth Circuit even though the case stemmed from a labor dispute in Southern California, one of many challenges to NLRB rulings that the company strategically filed with the New Orleans-based appeals court.

Judge Stephen Higginson, and Obama appointee, penned the opinion, which was joined by Judges Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, and Dana Douglas, a Biden appointee.

Starbucks was represented by Williams & Connolly LLP. The NLRB was represented by agency lawyers.

The case is Starbucks v. NLRB, 5th Cir., No. 24-60500, 4/17/26.