Freedom of movement under United States law is governed primarily by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." As far back as the circuit court ruling in Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Fed. Cas. 546 (1823), the Supreme Court recognized freedom of movement as a fundamental Constitutional right. In Paul v. Virginia, 75 U.S. 168 (1869), the Court defined freedom of movement as "right of free ingress into other States, and egress from them."[1]
And here how Obama's "Labor Board" (remember Ayn Rand's "Unification Board" in "Atlas Shrugged"?) is actively working to put such trivialities as freedom of movement into the dustbin of American history - along with sound medical care, reasonably-priced gasoline, and a solvent government:
In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force Boeing to bring an airplane production line back to its unionized facilities in Washington State instead of moving the work to a nonunion plant in South Carolina.
In its complaint, the labor board said that Boeing’s decision to transfer a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner passenger plane to South Carolina was motivated by an unlawful desire to retaliate against union workers for their past strikes in Washington and to discourage future strikes. The agency’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said it was illegal for companies to take actions in retaliation against workers for exercising the right to strike.....
It is highly unusual for the federal government to seek to reverse a corporate decision as important as the location of plant.
But ever since a Democratic majority took control of the five-member board after Mr. Obama’s election, the board has signaled that it would seek to adopt a more liberal, pro-union tilt after years of pro-employer decisions under President Bush.
When even the New York Times is hinting at an unprecedented political power grab, you know there is something more than a bit amiss. If an unelected government agency can refuse to allow companies to move based on political consideration for the party in power rather than financial considerations, than the economic collapse looming on the horizon will be at our doorsteps in time for Yule.
And it will arrive far faster in the blue states, as any companies even thinking of building or expanding on liberal turf will have to take into consideration the possibility that they might not ever be allowed to move out. Much like political stability affects corporate decision- making on overseas investment, so it does within our nation as well.
But the economic ignoramuses that comprise this administration and their unelected yet insanely powerful "boards" have little grasp of much beyond the needs of their rigid ideology. And as Claire Berlinski points out, this board's most recent additions were hardcore lefties placed as recess appointments by Barack Obama, over the objections of a Congress now more protective of its legal duties. Barack Obama does not need no stinkin' Constitution, you know...
Of course, there could be an entirely different motive at play. South Carolina is a white, Southern, Republican state, one that will never go blue and is helmed by fierce Obama critic and rising (female!) star Nikki Haley. And if you think Obama is not capable of acting out of petty grievance, political calculation, and racial hatred, well...you haven't really been paying much attention, have you?
Update: Hot Air:
I’ve heard plenty of people dismiss Atlas Shrugged (the book as well as the movie) as overwrought, contrived paranoia about the regulatory state. The government can’t run companies through its regulatory system, critics scoff, no matter what a Russian ex-patriate thought more than 50 years ago. No one is marching into manufacturers in the US and telling the Hank Reardons of the world what they can build and where....
....But, you know, that Ayn Rand was a nut, or something.
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