Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen General Committee of Adjustment, Central Region (558 U.S. 67)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 8, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 558 U.S. 67 · 130 S. Ct. 584
- Decided
- December 8, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Unions
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. “It is most true that this Court will not take jurisdiction if it should not,” Chief Justice Marshall famously wrote, “but it is equally true, that it must take jurisdiction if it should.... We have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given.” Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 404 (1821); see Marshall v. Marshall, 547 U. S. 293, 298-299 (2006). While Chief Justice Marshall’s statement bears “fine tuning,” there is surely a starting presumption that when jurisdiction is conferred, a court may not decline to exercise it. See R. Fallon, J. Manning, D. Meltzer, & D. Shapiro, Hart & Wechsler’s The Federal Courts and the Federal System 1061-1062 (6th ed. 2009). The general rule applicable to courts also holds for administrative agencies directed by Congress to adjudicate particular controversies. Congress vested in the National Railroad Adjustment Board (hereinafter NRAB or Board) jurisdiction to adjudicate grievances of railroad employees that remain unsettled after pursuit of internal procedures. 45 U. S. C. § 153 First (h), (i). We consider in this case five nearly identical decisions of a panel of the NRAB dismissing employee claims “for lack of jurisdiction.” NRAB First Div. Award No. 26089 etc. (Mar. 15,2005), App. to Pet. for Cert. 65a-107a, 69a (hereinafter…
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