It is not often that official federal documents cite the mating ritual of “Star Trek’s” Vulcan race to explain the finer points of the law, but that’s what one of the members of the National Labor Relations Board did in a ruling issued this week.
The reference was included in a footnote in a legal case involving under what circumstances an employer can hire replacement workers during a strike.
The footnote was written by Philip Miscimarra, the lone Republican on the five-member board, the main federal labor law enforcement agency. Miscimarra was dissenting to a decision by a majority of the board in a case called American Baptist Homes of the West.
The ruling made it easier to charge employers with illegally replacing strikers. A key question in the case was whether the intent to discriminate against workers’ rights could be inferred from an employer’s actions. The majority said it could.
Miscimarra argued the board’s decision ran contrary to a 1964 board ruling that said using “economic weapons” such as replacement workers during a strike was lawful and the motive to discriminate could could not be inferred from that. That being the case, Miscimarra said the majority’s decision was highly illogical, and he invoked one of the great, if fictional, authorities on the matter.
“The [National Labor Relations] Act does not require parties to maintain Spock-like objectivity towards one another when resorting to economic weapons. Nor is it realistic to believe that parties in these circumstances will remain in a dispassionate state of cool detachment,” he said.
In case the reference to the 1960s TV series was not clear enough, Miscimarra included a lengthy footnote explaining who Spock was and how he relates to federal labor law. It cited Wikipedia as its source.
The footnote read: “Mr. Spock — a main character in the well-known television and movie series ‘Star Trek’ — was perhaps best known for his (largely successful) efforts to suppress emotion. His father was from the planet Vulcan, where beings were ‘noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic.’
“However, even Spock, who had a human mother, experienced a ‘strained and often turbulent’ relationship with his Vulcan father, though it was ‘rooted in an underlying respect and carefully restrained love.'”
The footnote then delved in Vulcan mating rituals in an apparent attempt to explain that even people known for cool detachment can become hostile and aggressive: “Like other Vulcan males, Spock also periodically experienced ‘pon farr,’ which seemingly resulted in a battle to the death between Spock and his friend and captain, James T. Kirk, in the ‘Star Trek’ second season premiere.”
