The Supreme Court looks poised to scale back the overcaffeinated ambitions of the regulatory state in a dispute between Starbucks and its baristas. The coffee giant recently faced the unwelcome intrusion of a federal agency, the National Labor Relations Board, amid an effort by baristas to unionize. The board jumped into the fray on the side of the employees. It cited “unfair labor practices.” The Nine, in argument today, appears skeptical.

The case centers, in effect, on how much proof the NLRB needs to give to a federal court in order to interfere with a union drive. The board, typically pro-labor, wants more discretion from judges to pounce when it thinks companies aren’t being fair to employees trying to form a union. That’s what happened in the Starbucks quarrel, where the coffee purveyor fired several employees who were starting a union.