Supreme Court Invalidates Recess Appointments to NLRB

In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that President Obama’s recess appointments of Members Block, Griffin, and Flynn to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on January 4, 2012, were unconstitutional. See NLRB v. Noel Canning (June 26, 2014). Although the Court broadly interpreted the President’s power under the Recess Appointments Clause, it held that the three-day session during which the appointments were made was too short to fall within the Clause. Accordingly, the Court found that the President lacked the authority to make these appointments. Although the positions held by these members have since been filled by validly appointed members, the decision calls into question the validity of hundreds of Board opinions issued during the time these members served because the Board lacked a valid quorum during that time.