NLRB’s New Election Rules Challenged As Unconstitutional

On January 5, 2015, less than one month after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) voted to adopt a Final Rule to amend its rules and procedures for representation elections, a lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, asserting that the Board exceeded its authority under the National Labor Relations Act (Act) when it amended its rules for votes on union representation and that the new rule in unconstitutional and violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.

The suit was filed by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Federation and the Society for Human Resources Management.  It seeks an order vacating the Final Rule, declaring the Final Rule to be contrary to the Act and in excess of the Board’s statutory jurisdiction and authority and to violate the First and Fifth Amendments.

The claims raised in the suit are essentially the same as those which were raised by in an action filed in the same court in 2012, in response to the NLRB’s December 2011 adoption of a very similar set of changes to its representation election procedures.  That action also challenged the Board’s action based on what it found to be the Board’s lack of a quorum at the time it adopted those rule changes in 2011. Because the Court found that the Board lacked a quorum at that time, it found it unnecessary to address the substantive arguments about the changes in the election rules that are the essence of the new lawsuit.

While the Complaint does not indicate that the plaintiffs are seeking an order enjoining the Board from implementing the new election procedures under the Final Rule while the case is litigated, the plaintiffs are likely to request such an order as the Final Rule’s effective date of April 15^th nears.  In the earlier challenge to the Board’s 2011 rulemaking, the Court granted an injunction in April 2012 enjoining the Board from putting the new rules and procedures into effect, while it considered the merits of the challenge.

While Republican members of Congress have with increasing frequency indicated their desire to reign in the Board in a variety of areas where they have seen it as exceeding its mandate or moving in directions that they do not agree with, it is almost certain that President Obama would veto such legislation and it is not likely that the sufficient support would be present to override a veto. Thus as the New York Times observed  earlier this week, those who oppose administrative actions such as this are turning increasingly to the courts in hopes of relief.

We will continue to monitor and report on developments in this closely watched case.