The U.S. Supreme Court case Order of Railway Conductors of America v. Southern Railway Co., 1949, revolved around a dispute between the railway company and its employees' union over seniority rights for train conductors who had served in World War II. The union argued that those who had left their jobs to serve in the military should not lose their seniority status upon return, while the railway company maintained that they should be treated as new hires because they were absent from work during their service period. The court ruled in favor of the union, stating that under federal law (the Selective Training and Service Act), returning veterans must be reinstated without loss of seniority and cannot be discharged without cause within one year after restoration to employment.

In the dissenting opinion for the case of Order of Railway Conductors of America v. Southern Railway Co., Justice Robert H. Jackson argued that the majority's decision to allow a union to sue on behalf of its members was an overreach and misinterpretation of federal law. He contended that Congress had not intended for unions to have such powers when it passed labor laws, and he feared this ruling would lead to further litigation between unions and employers, disrupting industrial relations in the process. Furthermore, he believed that individual workers should retain their right to bring legal action against their employer without having their interests subsumed by those of a larger collective body like a union.