I Have Filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against Louder With Crowder

Non-disparagement clauses are illegal.

For many years, Steven Crowder has been one of the most popular and affluent online conservative media personalities in the country. His YouTube channel has 5.8 million followers and his videos regularly attract hundreds of thousands and even millions of views.

In 2018, Crowder’s producer, Jared Mittelo aka Jared Monroe, quit his job along with his brother, Aaron Mittelo. As part of quitting his job, like many other workers in the country, Jared signed a separation agreement that contained confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses. The clauses read as follows:

[Confidentiality]

As part of this agreement, and as an additional material inducement to the Parties to enter this Agreement, Employer and Employee agree to keep the existence and terms of this Agreement confidential and to not disclose its provisions to anyone except immediate family members, tax advisors, legal counsel, or as required by law. Any further disclosure, other than as authorized herein shall constitute a breach of this Agreement.

[Non-Disparagement]

Employer and Employee further agree not to take actions or make statements, written or oral, that would disparage or otherwise defame the goodwill or reputation of the other or his/its business, customers, clients, members, managers, predecessors, successors, parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, insurers, assigns, agents, attorneys, employees, shareholders, and representatives.

Retaliatory Legal Actions

Now, six years later, Crowder, through his company Louder with Crowder, LLC (LWC), has begun aggressively pursuing legal action against Jared.

On October 27, 2023, attorneys for LWC filed a Rule 202 Petition in a Texas district court asking the court to order Jared to provide documents and be deposed about things he may have said to dozens of people about LWC.

On October 30, 2023, attorneys for LWC sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jared instructing him to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE AND DESIST FROM MAKING ANY FURTHER DISPARAGING STATEMENTS, WRITTEN OR ORAL, ABOUT LWC.”

On March 27, 2024, attorneys for LWC filed a complaint in a Texas district court alleging that Jared breached the non-disparagement provision. In the complaint, attorneys for LWC focus entirely on innocuous text messages between Jared and Crowder’s ex-wife, Hilary. Hilary and Steven recently divorced following the release of security camera footage of Steven berating his then-pregnant wife:

In the video, he snaps at her to put on her gloves to give his dogs medicine, walk the dogs, and otherwise "perform wifely duties," as she is clearly emotionally distressed.

Towards the end of the exchange, Hilary Crowder says to her husband, "Your abuse is sick," he snaps at her, saying, "Watch it. Fucking watch it."

Moments later, off camera, Steven Crowder, by his admission, would lose control and scream at his pregnant wife in a threatening tone, "I will fuck you up," which led his wife to flee their home.

Crowder appears to be lashing out at Jared because he allegedly reached out to Hilary as a friend during the divorce process.

Unfair Labor Practices

The problem with LWC’s legal assault on Jared is that the confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses that LWC is relying upon blatantly violate Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

In Shamrock Foods (2018), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) analyzed a separation agreement that contained the following confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses:

[Confidentiality]

You have executed a Confidentiality Agreement and you acknowledge that the terms of such agreement remain in effect notwithstanding the termination of your employment. . . . You may not use/disclose any of the Company’s Confidential Information for any reason following your termination and during the transition period.

[Non-Disparagement]

You agree not to make any disparaging remarks or take any action now, or at any time in the future, which could be detrimental to the Released Parties.

The Board found that both of these clauses violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA and ordered the employer to rescind them.

More recently, in McLaren Macomb (2023), the Board analyzed a severance agreement with the following confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses:

[Confidentiality]

The Employee acknowledges that the terms of this Agreement are confidential and agrees not to disclose them to any third person, other than spouse, or as necessary to professional advisors for the purposes of obtaining legal counsel or tax advice, or unless legally compelled to do so by a court or administrative agency of competent jurisdiction.

[Non-Disparagement]

At all times hereafter, the Employee agrees not to make statements to Employer’s employees or to the general public which could disparage or harm the image of Employer, its parent and affiliated entities and their officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives.

As in Shamrock Foods, the Board found that both of the clauses violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA and ordered the employer to rescind them.

Even more recently, on March 20, 2024, Region 19 of the NLRB issued a complaint against SpaceX for having confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in a severance agreement that are virtually identical to the clauses in McLaren Macomb, Shamrock Foods, and Jared’s separation agreement.

The law is clear that the mere existence of these kinds of restrictive clauses violates the NLRA. Attempting to enforce them by sending cease-and-desist letters, seeking judicial discovery, and filing lawsuits, as LWC has done in this case, also separately violates the NLRA.

Last Friday, acting as Jared’s legal representative, I filed an unfair labor practice charge in the Atlanta Region of the NLRB, alleging that LWC has committed the following unfair labor practices:

1. Maintaining an illegal confidentiality rule in an employment agreement.

2. Maintaining an illegal confidentiality rule in a separation agreement.

3. Maintaining an illegal non-disparagement rule in a separation agreement.

4. Engaging in unlawful interrogation and surveillance by seeking to obtain information about protected activity using the tools of judicial discovery.

5. Sending legal threats instructing Jared to not engage in protected activity.

6. Filing a baseless, retaliatory lawsuit that seeks the illegal objective of enforcing illegal confidentiality and non-disparagement rules.

If Mr. Mittelo’s charges prevail at the NLRB, Louder with Crowder, LLC will be required to rescind these clauses from all of its separation agreements with former employees and be required to reimburse Mr. Mittelo for any legal expenses he has already incurred or will incur going forward contending with his former employer’s illegal state court actions.

In addition to being illegal, LWC’s behavior in this case is also reprehensible and, curiously given Crowder’s conservative politics, contrary to the basic spirit of free speech and free markets. Employers should not attempt to lock down the speech of their former employees for the rest of their lives. We do not live in a feudal society but rather in a free-labor regime where workers are allowed to move between employers and communicate with one another and to the public about the merits of one employer over another. They should not live in fear of being harassed in court for exercising those rights.