Obama: DC Appeals Court NLRB Ruling Has No Impact

Mark Gaston Pearce, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), issued a statement on Friday in response to the decision of a federal Appeals Court that held that President Obama’s three appointments to the NLRB, while the Senate was in session, are unconstitutional, and that all actions taken by these appointees are invalid.

Pearce’s statement is as follows:

The Board respectfully disagrees with today’s decision and believes that the President’s position in the matter will ultimately be upheld. It should be noted that this order applies to only one specific case, Noel Canning, and that similar questions have been raised in more than a dozen cases pending in other courts of appeals.

In the meantime, the Board has important work to do. The parties who come to us seek and expect careful consideration and resolution of their cases, and for that reason, we will continue to perform our statutory duties and issue decisions.

In other words, Pearce is indicating that the NLRB will ignore the Appeals Court ruling because, as he interprets, the ruling only applies to the particular case, Noel Canning v. NLRB, that went before the court.

Jay Carney, President Obama’s spokesman, also denounced the ruling, stating that the decision has “no impact on the ongoing operations of the National Labor Relations Board.”

In response to the Obama administration’s decision to ignore the ruling of the Appeals Court, Mark Levin, conservative talk-show host and president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in Noel Canning, urged House Republicans to immediately defund the NLRB. During his Friday radio program, Levin said:

I would like to suggest that the House of Representatives… propose an independent bill… to defund the National Labor Relations Board, because it is, as of today, a rogue agency. I have no expectation that Harry Reid, and the other numskulls in the Senate will support it, because they believe in rogue government; they’re behind it. But the Republicans need to send a message, and they need to send it now. I am encouraging them, I am urging them, right now, put up a bill to defund the National Labor Relations Board because it is defying a circuit court decision. It says it is going to continue to make rulings, even though it does not have a quorum, even though three of its members sit there illegally. You have got to stand up to this.