Farmworker Clash Pits Union Access, Property Rights at Top Court

For almost a half century, labor organizers in California have had a unusual right: Under a state regulation, they can walk onto the premises of an agricultural business and recruit workers to join a union.

The regulation is now before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that critics are looking to turn into a blockbuster decision strengthening property rights and curbing regulatory power. The court will hear arguments Monday on a constitutional challenge to a 1975 rule that grew out of the efforts of Cesar Chavez to give farm workers collective bargaining rights.

Conservative legal groups and the U.S. ...