“While I appreciate the legislative need, I doubt that this statute passes constitutional muster,” said Stanford Law School emeritus professor William B. Gould IV. “A long line of preemption rulings concludes that where Congress has legislated comprehensively, as it has through the NLRA, state jurisdiction over the same subject matter is constitutionally precluded–even if the federal government is failing to do its job, as is the case now.”

Gould said that he wishes California could step in. But he noted the complaint cites a seven-decade-old U.S. Supreme Court case that found state labor boards cannot assert authority over labor disputes that fall within the act, even when the NLRB declines to act. Guss v. Utah Lab. Rel. Bd., 353 U.S. 1, 9 (1957).