Washington Post (01/25/13) Robert Barnes; Steven Mufson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has invalidated three of President Obama’s appointments to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on constitutional grounds. In Noel Canning v. NLRB, a unanimous court held that the appointments of Sharon Block, Terence Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the NLRB on Jan. 4, 2012, were not valid “recess” appointments under the Constitution. The court’s decision casts doubt on hundreds of decisions the NLRB has mde in the past year, including enforcement of collective-bargaining agreements and the rights of employees to use social media.