Cite as: 535 U. S. 137 (2002)
Breyer, J., dissenting
Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens, Justice Souter, and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting.
I cannot agree that the backpay award before us "runs counter to," or "trenches upon," national immigration policy. Ante, at 147, 149 (citing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)). As all the relevant agencies (including the Department of Justice) have told us, the National Labor Relations Board's limited backpay order will not interfere with the implementation of immigration policy. Rather, it reasonably helps to deter unlawful activity that both labor laws and immigration laws seek to prevent. Consequently, the order is lawful. See ante, at 142 (recognizing "broad" scope of Board's remedial authority).
* * *
The Court does not deny that the employer in this case dismissed an employee for trying to organize a union—a crude and obvious violation of the labor laws. See 29 U. S. C. § 158(a)(3) (1994 ed.); NLRB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U. S. 393, 398 (1983). And it cannot deny that the Board has especially broad discretion in choosing an appropriate remedy for addressing such violations. NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U. S. 575, 612, n. 32 (1969) (Board "draws on a fund of knowledge and expertise all its own, and its choice of remedy must therefore be given special respect by reviewing courts"). Nor can it deny that in such circumstances backpay awards serve critically important remedial purposes. NLRB v. J. H. Rutter-Rex Mfg. Co., 396 U. S. 258, 263 (1969). Those purposes involve more than victim compensation; they also include deterrence, i. e., discouraging
those individuals who have suffered harm' ") (quoting Local 512, Warehouse and Office Workers Union v. NLRB, 795 F. 2d, at 725 (Beezer, J., dissenting in part)). Because we find the remedy foreclosed on other grounds, we do not address whether the award at issue here is " 'punitive' and hence beyond the authority of the Board." Sure-Tan, supra, at 905, n. 14.
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