The recent switch by the Trump administration's U.S. Justice Department from opposing to defending bans on class actions in workplace arbitration agreements will have consequences beyond a trio of challenges the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear this fall.

On June 16, acting solicitor general Jeffrey Wall informed the justices that the Justice Department was reversing its position in a key labor case, National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil, which tests employee arbitration agreements. The government said it would no longer support the NLRB's position that arbitration agreements barring class actions violate federal labor law.

Less than three weeks later, on July 3, the Justice Department relied on that reversal in the high court to justify abandoning its support for a class action provision in the U.S. Labor department's so-called “fiduciary rule.” Also in that same period of one month, the Justice Department allowed a June 2 deadline to lapse for its appeal of a temporary injunction against a nursing home rule that banned mandatory arbitration agreements.