By Noah Powelson
The battle between St. John’s University and its former faculty unions headed to court last week as a federal judge began to weigh whether state labor laws are applicable to the Catholic institution.
U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block heard arguments from St. John’s University on Oct. 13, when its attorneys claimed the state’s Public Employment Relations Board did not have jurisdiction over the religious university. The hearing was the first in what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle between St. John’s and its former American Association of University Professors and Faculty Association union chapters.
The fight between the school and the unions began in February, when St. John’s decided to no longer recognize the labor groups after they had been operating at the Queens college for nearly 60 years.
St. John’s sued the PERB in June, after its former unions filed unfair labor practice charges against the school. In their complaint, St. John’s asserted that the First Amendment protected it from a “regime of mandatory collective bargaining that impermissibly entangles the government (and the faculty union) in its internal governance of religion.”
By attempting to establish jurisdiction over St. John’s through the New York State Employment Relations Act, the university argued, PERB was violating the university’s First Amendment protections against excessive government entanglement with religion.
“St. John’s brings this action to vindicate its...
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