Labor Rule Is Latest Agency Action to Hit Judge Barker’s Buzzsaw

Texas federal judge J. Campbell Barker’s decision striking down the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer rule is the latest in a string of defeats he’s handed to several federal agencies in his first five years on the bench.

Barker, 44, has also knocked down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-era eviction moratorium, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau effort to police discriminatory banking practices, and the Food and Drug Administration’s graphic warning labels for cigarettes. He voided the NLRB’s joint employer rule March 8 as overbroad.

First nominated by President Donald Trump in 2018 when he was ...