Washington — A Jan. 28 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington reversed a 2017 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board ordering a Pittsburgh Catholic university to bargain with its adjunct faculty group.

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities applauded the decision in Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit v. National Labor Relations Board.

"For us, this has always been a case about how the government decides to recognize our designation as faith-based institutions," the association said.

It also noted that when the NLRB addressed unionizing on Catholic college campuses, "it chose to limit the designation of 'Catholic' strictly to the work that is done by professors teaching religion or other narrow corners of our institutions to be decided, institution-by-institution, by the NLRB itself."

The ACCU said it was pleased the appeals court affirmed the ruling of the Supreme Court in its 1979 case NRLB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago. In that decision the court rejected the labor group's attempt to expand its reach to include religious institutions, stressing that problems can arise when a government office tries to determine if certain activities are religious or not.