Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

On Friday, May 31, 2013, Hunton & Williams partner Michael Shebelskie argued on behalf of Big Ridge Inc. in Big Ridge Inc. v. NLRB, the lead case pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in which an employer has challenged the constitutionality of President Obama’s January 4, 2012 recess appointments to the NLRB.  Mr. Shebelskie and Hunton & Williams also argued against the validity of the President’s recess appointments before the Fourth Circuit earlier this year in Huntington Ingalls Incorporated v. NLRB.  Argument in the Big Ridge case comes hot on the heels of the D.C. Circuit’s landmark decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB and the Third Circuit’s recent decision in NLRB v. New Vista Nursing & Rehabilitation.  The courts in both of those cases struck down the President’s appointments on the grounds the Recess Appointments Clause of the Constitution permits a recess appointment during the intersession recess between annual Senate sessions, not during any intra-session adjournment in Senate business.  We will continue to closely track this issue as it winds its way through the appellate courts and, most likely, to the U.S. Supreme Court.