The legislature of West Virginia enacted a law in 1983 (effective July 1, 1984) requiring that at least 40 percent of the board of directors of all nonprofit and local government hospitals in the state be composed of an equal proportion of “consumer representatives” from “small businesses, organized labor, elderly persons, and persons whose income is less than the national median income.” The American Hospital Association joined with a number of West Virginia hospitals in seeking an injunction against enforcement of the law and a declaratory judgment that, among other things, the law interfered with bargaining rights between the hospitals and their employees and was therefore preempted by federal labor law.

If you were arguing for the plaintiff hospitals, how would you contend that this West Virginia law might interfere with the collective bargaining relationship?

If you were the federal judge hearing the case, how would you rule and why? See American Hospital Association v. Hansbarger [600 F. Supp. 465, 118 L.R.

R.M. 2389 (N.D. W.Va. 1984)].