Good morning and welcome to the Wednesday edition of the SCOTUS Brief. Brad Kutner here, working with Avalon Zoppo as we all continue to tread in the footsteps of the incomparable Marcia Coyle. The justices have already been busy this week, and you can read about their debate in In re Grand Jury from Monday here. Today I covered oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters, a dispute over union workers whose employers claim destroyed company property as part of a work protest. But don't worry, there's some agency authority questions in there too. We also ask how much it would take to let a SCOTUS lawyer be replaced by a robot—our guess is a lot. 

Thanks for reading. We welcome feedback and tips. Contact us at [email protected] and [email protected]. And make sure you follow us both on twitter: @BradKutner and @AvalonZoppo. 

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the second day of her confirmation hearing to become associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, on March 22, 2022. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

SCOTUS Debates Strike Tactics, Agency Authority 

The U.S. Supreme Court tackled multiple questions about a Washington state labor union's strike that the company said left trucks damaged but the federal government argued was decided improperly. The issues presented included the nature of when a strike's economic damage violates federal law and whether the Washington Supreme Court was correct in dismissing the suit, or if the National Labor Relations Board should have had the first say. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the most vocal as to concerns about the damage to the company, concrete services provider Glacier Northwest, and whether or not the action of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174 met the threshold for an unprotected union act.