In the case, a union filed a petition seeking to represent a unit of about 176 non-tenure-eligible contingent faculty members at a Lutheran university.
As has happened recently with several of the Board's controversial rulings, the decision came out over the dissent of NLRB member Harry I. Johnson III, who asserted that the 1979 U.S. Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago "soundly rejected the board's attempt to exert its jurisdiction over 'church-operated' schools," and that various federal appellate courts have rejected prior attempts of the NLRB to assert such jurisdiction.