Oral argument on the Noel Canning case will take place on January 13, 2014 before the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. As readers of this blog will recall, Noel Canning was the first of three different U.S. court of appeals decisions holding that President Obama’s recess appointees to the NLRB were unconstitutional. While the subsequent confirmation by the U.S. Senate of five NLRB members means that the oral argument will have no effect on the current operations of the NLRB, the case will determine the validity of numerous NLRB decisions issued while the recess appointees served. The Supreme Court’s decision will also likely play a significant role in how future vacancies on the NLRB, and in other federal agencies for that matter, are handled.
