In the case of National Labor Relations Board v. P. Lorillard Co., 1941, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB had accused P. Lorillard Co., a tobacco company, of unfair labor practices such as interfering with its employees' rights to form and join labor unions under Section 7 of the Wagner Act or National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects workers' rights to engage in collective bargaining and other concerted activities for mutual aid or protection. The court held that substantial evidence supported these allegations by NLRB against Lorillard Company, thus affirming an order issued by NLRB requiring Lorillard to cease and desist from its unfair labor practices.

In the dissenting opinion for the case of NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. P. LORILLARD CO., Justice Roberts argued that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had overstepped its authority by ordering Lorillard to reinstate workers who were fired due to their union activities, without considering whether these employees would have been terminated regardless of their union involvement. He contended that it was not within NLRB's jurisdiction to determine if an employer’s actions were motivated by anti-union sentiment or other legitimate business reasons, and this decision should be left up to courts instead. Furthermore, he disagreed with majority's interpretation of Section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act which allowed NLRB to take such action against employers found guilty of unfair labor practices; in his view, this provision only authorized remedial measures rather than punitive ones like reinstatement orders issued without proper inquiry into cause-effect relationship between employee termination and alleged unfair practice.