NLRB will Appeal Recess Case to Supreme Court

The National Labor Relations Board announced this week it will ask the Supreme Court to reverse a lower-court ruling that made President Barack Obama's three recess appointments unconstitutional.

In January, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Noel Canning v. NLRB that Obama's appointments were invalid because Congress was on a break, not technically fully recessed.

Now with less than three members on the NLRB, it is unable to make decisions on pending cases concerning the livelihoods of men and women. Unless the Supreme Court overthrows Noel Canning, more than 300 NLRB decisions made in the past year could be nullified.

In an interview on The Ed Schultz Show, CWA President Larry Cohen described what's currently at stake.

"The law we have is essentially hollowed out," he said. "The largest management group in this country and the management's attorneys are all telling their clients you don't have to obey anything, you don't have to subject yourself to the National Labor Relations Act. Because right now it's not functioning. And they like it that it's not functioning. And of course with the Senate rules the way they are, it's not going to function. And the Senate Republicans and Chamber of Commerce are determined that there will not be Democratic majority on the NLRB for the entire four years."

Read more here about how filibuster abuse has resulted in a non-functional National Labor Relations Board.