Fred Jacob
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fredbjacob.bsky.social
Fred Jacob
@fredbjacob.bsky.social
Dad, labor lawyer, GW Law adjunct prof, patriot, pannapictagraphist, he/his. W&M Law/Brandeis alum, first gen college. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employers. www.fredbjacob.com
Pinned
Anne Lofaso (@cincyannie.bsky.social) and I have just posted our paper, Beyond Loper Bright: Iterative Construction at the National Labor Relations Board.
That feeling when you're writing an article, have a great idea, then find someone who has reached the same conclusion, and you don't know whether that's good because it reinforces your point or bad because it might look like you're "borrowing" their idea...
a little girl wearing a pink jacket is sitting at a table
ALT: a little girl wearing a pink jacket is sitting at a table
media.tenor.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
More dissents like this please. Short, punchy, and to the point.
October 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Lawyer and labor friends:

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

At the Thunderdome! "The Role of Unions and Labor-Management Relations in Promoting American Democracy"!

Okay, not at the Thunderdome, but on Zoom! To register, email lerachicagochapter@gmail.com.
October 21, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Fred Jacob
The right-wing backlash against #Superman this week got me thinking: Has this happened before?

That led to the discovery of these headline — from April 1940, when the official newspaper of the SS took umbrage at the comic book hero and ridiculed its creators.

My how times change ...
July 11, 2025 at 1:41 PM
So excited to read this 1968 biography of Senator Robert Wagner, the legislative father of the New Deal. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday thanks to unionized federal postal workers, whose representation wouldn’t have been possible without Senator Wagner’s National Labor Relations Act…
July 11, 2025 at 1:26 PM
In 1958, NLRB Chair Boyd Leedom penned an article opposing judicializing administrative process by creating an Article III administrative court. Interesting stuff, given today’s debates.

Far cooler, though, is that the NLRB library’s copy of the article is autographed!

Leedom v. Kyne nerds unite!
July 7, 2025 at 4:01 PM
I don’t know who put these in the break room, but my dentist and I thank you.
June 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
This is how union officials filed an anti-communist affidavit with the NLRB in 1954, in case you were wondering. If they didn’t, their union lost its right to file for NLRB election petitions or unfair labor practice charges.
June 6, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Labor law and NLRB stans, from the depths of the NLRB library, I bring you “Washington World” magazine’s September 1963 primer on the Labor Board.

I like the headline, “NLRB bans unfairness by boss or worker.” Just doing our jobs, ma’am.
May 30, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Professors friends who teach Labor and Constitutional Law, here’s your next exam question for *both* classes, courtesy of the Seattle Chief of Police, circa 1935. @charlottegarden.bsky.social @matthewtbodie.bsky.social @alvinvelazquez.bsky.social @patsobkowski.com @cincyannie.bsky.social
May 23, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Adlaw nerds: contemporaneous coverage of Humphrey’s Executor, as found in a homemade scrapbook of labor unrest from 1935 tucked away in the NLRB library. @jedshug.bsky.social @emilysbremer.bsky.social @tphillips.bsky.social @kexelchabot.bsky.social @charlottegarden.bsky.social
May 21, 2025 at 12:55 PM
As a 2L in law school, I wrote Justice Souter a fawning fan letter about his concurrence in a seminal free exercise case, Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye. Rather than ignore it, he actually responded—validating this young wannabe lawyer’s voice and encouraging me to keep speaking.
May 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Fred Jacob
Attn #adlaw nerds: Join Us on May 8, 2025, for the ABA Administrative Law Scholarship Conference -- 30 papers to be workshopped, ~50 scholars presenting and commenting, and plenty of time to socialize. Complimentary registration details here: www.yalejreg.com/nc/join-us-o...
Join Us on May 8, 2025, for the ABA Administrative Law Scholarship Conference - Yale Journal on Regulation
On Thursday May 8, 2025, in Washington, DC, the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice is hosting a terrific scholarship conference that will feature paper presentations and comment...
www.yalejreg.com
April 13, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Today is the 88th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act, providing American workers the right to workplace democracy.
April 12, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Calling @annapeppard.bsky.social: Nightcrawler cosplay @AwesomeCon DC.
April 6, 2025 at 8:28 PM
So flattering to see my essay on the major questions doctrine called “clever” by the far-cleverer @beaubaumann.bsky.social in his new MQD round-up.

Here’s my piece; please send your thoughts: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

You should read Beau’s round-up too! www.yalejreg.com/nc/a-major-q...
March 28, 2025 at 2:54 PM
7m
Best Star Trek crew, wrong answers only.
March 20, 2025 at 8:19 PM
This may be interest to admin law peeps too. (“You got your labor in my admin; no, you got your admin in my labor.”)

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

@bridgetdooling.bsky.social @khickmanjd.bsky.social @patsobkowski.com @emilysbremer.bsky.social @profdanwalters.bsky.social @kexelchabot.bsky.social
Anne Lofaso (@cincyannie.bsky.social) and I have just posted our paper, Beyond Loper Bright: Iterative Construction at the National Labor Relations Board.
February 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Also, for those of you who like your TV with a dose of labor (I'm talking about you, @solongdentalplan.com)
Is ‘Severance’ a Show about Unions?
Lessons on workplace organizing from tech hell dystopia.
tabithaarnold.substack.com
February 11, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Anne Lofaso (@cincyannie.bsky.social) and I have just posted our paper, Beyond Loper Bright: Iterative Construction at the National Labor Relations Board.
February 11, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Fred Jacob
!!!
I don't know anything about football, but as a labor law professor, I think I'm now obligated to become an Eagles fan
The Philadelphia Eagles were named, in 1933, to honor Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s National Recovery Administration, part of the New Deal—the NRA’s Blue Eagle stood for protection of labor and federal oversight of the U.S. economy (pic: Library of Congress)
February 10, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Fred Jacob
President Trump Appoints Willam B. Cowen Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board

www.nlrb.gov/news-outreac...
www.nlrb.gov
February 3, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Wow! I never thought I'd be asked to write about The Nanny, crossing picket lines, and the tradition of strong Jewish union women, so I'm indebted to @solongdentalplan.com for making it happen. If you like TV and labor culture, look for solongdentalplan.com in 2026!
Call for Proposals - So Long, Dental Plan!
“So Long, Dental Plan!” Unions, Labor Relations and Class Struggle…As Seen On TV Edited by Shaun Richman Subject Fields Labor Studies, Film and Film History, American Studies, Humanities, Political Sc...
solongdentalplan.com
January 16, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Perhaps my first, and probably my favorite, FF story ever.


In Jack Kirby & Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four #51 (1966), no one punches anyone and few characters use their powers. There’s no world-ending threat and no one defeats a villain or even fights one. Which is precisely what makes it one of the best single issues of the #SilverAge. 1/12
January 15, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Fred Jacob
Thanks again to @fredbjacob.bsky.social for joining me on Law on Film podcast to discuss John Sayles's masterpiece, "Matewan" and for a deep dive into a critical moment in U.S. labor history.
www.buzzsprout.com/2073468/epis...
Matewan (1989) (Guest: Fred B. Jacob) (episode 36) - Law on Film
Matewan (written and directed by John Sayles) dramatizes the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners’ strike in 1920 in a small town in the hills of West Virginia. In the film, Joe Kenehan (Chr...
www.buzzsprout.com
January 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM