The constitutional showdown over President Barack Obama’s recess appointment authority moved into the U.S. Supreme Court last week as the government asked the justices to review a federal appellate court decision invalidating three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
In the petition to the high court in NLRB v. Noel Canning, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. said the January ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threatens "a significant disruption" of the federal government’s operations and not only to the NLRB, whose every order since Jan. 4, 2012, may face challenge. "Those effects can also be expected to extend to a wider range of federal agencies and offices, because venue lies in the District of Columbia in virtually all civil actions seeking review of federal agency actions," wrote Verrilli.
