While lecturing others on democracy and human rights, the United States has let its own system for enforcing basic labor protections collapse. Its failure to protect the rights of workers should be an international scandal.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the only federal agency charged with enforcing private-sector workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, is facing a constitutional crisis. On August 19, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the structure protecting NLRB administrative law judges (ALJs) and Board members from presidential removal violates the Constitution’s separation of powers.

Workers’ greatest power has always been in direct action against employers. Legal remedies are just one tool in the broader struggle. Today, with the Board’s enfor

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