Supreme Court’s NLRB Ruling Raises Questions About Hundreds of Decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision that the National Labor Relations Board was acting without authority when membership on the five-member board fell to only two people.
The decision calls into question more than 500 employee-employer cases decided by the board, the Associated Press reports. Reuters and SCOTUSblog say around 600 cases are affected, as does an NLRB press release (PDF).
The decision “took many observers by surprise,” SCOTUSblog reports.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion (PDF) in New Process Steel v. National Labor Relations Board. The court’s conservative members agreed with Stevens while the court’s four other liberals dissented.
SCOTUSblog suggests the decision will likely require new adjudications in cases that aren’t yet final, but the issue becomes more difficult in cases that are final. “As a practical matter, it may not be worth the time and expense for parties to challenge prior final judgments,” SCOTUSblog says. “After all, the two-member boards were composed of one Democrat and one Republican who agreed on the result.”
The NLRB, which adjudicates labor-management disputes, now has four members because of recess appointments by President Obama.
Updated at 3:36 p.m. to include NLRB press release.
