TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 11, 2026

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Biden administration overstepped its powers by relying on a previous ruling to require Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's and other whiskeys, to bargain with a union representing workers at a Lexington distillery. The board directed the company — based on its earlier Cemex ruling — to negotiate with the union after finding it illegally interfered with a union campaign at the Woodford Reserve Distillery. According to Reuters, the case is among the first in which an appeals court has considered a challenge to the Cemex ruling, which found that employers can be ordered to bargain with unions if they engage in illegal labor practices, even when a union loses an election or one has not been held. The appeals court found that the Cemex decision went beyond the board’s authority and thus could not be used to order bargaining in the Brown-Forman case. Read the opinion.