BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB
E176643
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed when an employer’s unsuccessful but reasonably based lawsuit against a union can be treated as an unfair labor practice under federal labor law.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB canonical | 3 |
| Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1538897 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB Context triple: [Petition Clause, citedInCase, BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB]
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A.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. is a landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld federal power to regulate labor relations, marking a major expansion of Congress’s authority over interstate commerce.
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B.
Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB
The Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB is the prosecutorial and investigative arm of the National Labor Relations Board, responsible for enforcing federal labor law and overseeing the processing of unfair labor practice cases.
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C.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
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D.
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a city’s local-hiring ordinance could be challenged under the Privileges and Immunities Clause for discriminating against out-of-state workers.
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E.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB Target entity description: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed when an employer’s unsuccessful but reasonably based lawsuit against a union can be treated as an unfair labor practice under federal labor law.
-
A.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. is a landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld federal power to regulate labor relations, marking a major expansion of Congress’s authority over interstate commerce.
-
B.
Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB
The Office of the General Counsel of the NLRB is the prosecutorial and investigative arm of the National Labor Relations Board, responsible for enforcing federal labor law and overseeing the processing of unfair labor practice cases.
-
C.
United States v. Darby
United States v. Darby is a 1941 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld federal labor regulations under the Commerce Clause and marked a broad expansion of federal power over economic activity.
-
D.
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden
United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden is a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that held a city’s local-hiring ordinance could be challenged under the Privileges and Immunities Clause for discriminating against out-of-state workers.
-
E.
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio
Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio is a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case that narrowed the standards for proving employment discrimination under Title VII, prompting Congress to later revise those standards in the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
First Amendment case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ labor law case ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
constitutional law
ⓘ
employment law ⓘ labor law ⓘ |
| chiefJusticeAtDecision | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| citation | 536 U.S. 516 ⓘ |
| clarified |
interaction between labor law and the First Amendment right to petition
ⓘ
limits on the NLRB’s authority to penalize employer lawsuits ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision | First Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2002 ⓘ |
| docketNumber | 01-518 ⓘ |
| holding |
The First Amendment right to petition protects reasonably based lawsuits, even if they are unsuccessful, from being penalized as unfair labor practices.
ⓘ
linked to:
Petition Clause
The National Labor Relations Board may not treat an employer’s reasonably based but unsuccessful lawsuit against a union as an unfair labor practice solely because the suit was unsuccessful. ⓘ |
| impact |
limited the circumstances under which the NLRB can treat employer litigation as coercive or retaliatory conduct
ⓘ
strengthened protections for employers’ access to courts in labor disputes ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | federal question jurisdiction ⓘ |
| languageOfProceedings | English ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
First Amendment right to petition the government
ⓘ
Noerr-Pennington doctrine ⓘ employer lawsuits against unions ⓘ unfair labor practice ⓘ |
| lowerCourt | United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
ⓘ
linked to:
Sandra Day O’Connor
|
| petitioner | BE&K Construction Company ⓘ |
| proceduralPosture | review of a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ⓘ |
| rejectedStandard | treating all unsuccessful employer lawsuits against unions as retaliatory and unlawful ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Bill Johnson’s Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB
ⓘ
linked to:
BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB
Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. ⓘ |
| relatedDoctrine |
Noerr-Pennington immunity for petitioning activity
ⓘ
linked to:
Noerr-Pennington doctrine
|
| respondent | National Labor Relations Board ⓘ |
| result | NLRB’s finding of an unfair labor practice based on BE&K’s lawsuit was set aside ⓘ |
| sectionInterpreted |
Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act
ⓘ
linked to:
National Labor Relations Act
Section 8(a)(4) of the National Labor Relations Act ⓘ |
| standardApplied | objective reasonableness of the employer’s lawsuit ⓘ |
| statuteInterpreted | National Labor Relations Act ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | employer’s civil lawsuit against unions over alleged unlawful secondary activity ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Rehnquist Court ⓘ |
| topic |
employer retaliation against unions
ⓘ
use of litigation as a potential unfair labor practice ⓘ |
| voteSplit |
9-0 on the judgment
ⓘ
divided on reasoning with concurring opinions ⓘ |
| yearArgued | 2002 ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2002 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB Description of subject: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB is a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that addressed when an employer’s unsuccessful but reasonably based lawsuit against a union can be treated as an unfair labor practice under federal labor law.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: BE&K Construction Co. v. NLRB