Despite its ostensible role as a neutral arbiter, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has a penchant for tilting the field in favor of labor unions depending on who is running the agency. Its most recent shenanigan involving the retail giant Amazon—a curiously-timed court petition— is an unfortunate example of this phenomenon.

On March 17, an NLRB Regional Director filed a petition in federal court seeking an injunction under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The petition asked the court to force Amazon to rehire an employee who had been fired from his job at the company’s fulfillment center in Staten Island, NY (known as its JFK8 facility). Despite the drama of using 10(j), this termination was hardly an emergency, in fact it took place a full 23 months ago.

According to the NLRB, Amazon’s decision to fire the employee was illegal because it violated the NLRA’s protection of concerted activity, as the employee was engaged in protests over Amazon’s COVID-19 policies. Amazon maintains that the employee was terminated because he “publicly, viciously, and profanely berated a female coworker over a bullhorn and social media broadcasts,” which it called a “vile, offensive, and disparaging verbal attack … that no employer ever would—or should—tolerate or accept in a civilized workplace.” According to at least one news report about the language used, Amazon’s characterization would seem pretty accurate.

As observers of labor policy know, the NLRB...

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