The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a January ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that held that the appointments of three National Labor Relations Board members were invalid, according to an AHA News Now report.
At the heart of the issue is whether President Obama validly used his recess appointment authority to appoint three members to the board Jan. 4, 2012, without Senate approval. The Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, held that the president can only make appointments for vacancies that arise during an official recess of the Senate and that the period for which the president made the appointments was not an official recess.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated an NLRB decision regarding a collective bargaining agreement violation that it made when the three presidential appointments were a part of the board. In March, the NLRB said that it intended to ask the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals ruling. If the ruling stands, it could invalidate all NLRB decisions made since the appointees joined the board due to lack of a legally required quorum.
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