Judicial Challenge to NLRB Recess Appointments - Podcast

On January 4, 2012, President Barack Obama announced recess appointments of three members of the National Labor Relations Board: Richard F. Griffin, Jr., former General Counsel of the Operating Engineers union, Sharon Brook, former labor staffer for Senator Edward ("Ted") Kennedy and assistant to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís, and former Republican Senate staffer Terrence F. Flynn, who has since resigned.  These appointments are controversial because the United States Senate was, by its own rules, not in recess at the time, conducting pro forma sessions every three days.  Several appeals from Board decisions by panels that included recess appointees have been filed by various parties challenging the recess appointments as unconstitutional.  An appeal filed in the Seventh Circuit by nonunion workers represented by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Staff Attorney Glenn M. Taubman was the first of those cases to be argued in a U. S. Court of Appeals, on November 30, 2012.  An appeal filed in the D.C. Circuit by an employer was argued by Jones Day partner Noel J. Francisco on December 5, 2012.  On this previously recorded conference call, Messrs. Taubman and Francisco report on the oral arguments in their cases, discuss the legal theories for and against the recess appointments, and answer questions.

Featuring:

• Mr. Noel J. Francisco, Partner, Jones Day
• Mr. Glenn M. Taubman, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
• Moderator: Mr. Christian B. Corrigan, Director of Publications, The Federalist Society

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