NLRB will reconsider cases decided by two-member panel

Now that it’s back up to full strength with five members, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is cleaning up the legal mess that resulted when the Supreme Court threw out 27 months of decisions by a two-member panel. For the 96 cases that were on appeal at the time of the Supreme Court’s decision, the NLRB is asking the federal courts to send them back down to the NLRB for reconsideration. The original two members will rehear the cases along with at least one other Board member (NLRB press release, July 1, 2010). It is still unclear whether the Supreme Court’s ruling will affect the NLRB decisions that were never appealed (see our June 17, 2010 newsletter article on New Process Steel, L.P. v. NLRB, U.S., June, 2010). In one additional clean-up move, the current Board voted to ratify all of the hiring and appointment decisions that were made during the time there were only two Board members (NLRB press release, July 8, 2010).