The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted the National Labor Relations Board’s petition to decide if a former acting general counsel of the NLRB served in violation of federal law. NLRB v. SW General, Inc., Case 15-1251 (June 20, 2016).

As we wrote here earlier  (“Complaint Issued by NLRB’s Acting General Counsel was Unauthorized, Federal Appeals Court Rules”), in vacating a Board order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that former Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon could not have lawfully delegated authority to an NLRB Regional Director to issue the underlying unfair labor practice complaint against Southwest Ambulance because Mr. Solomon, at the time, was not lawfully appointed as the Board’s Acting General Counsel. SW General, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, No. 14-1107, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13812 (D.C. Cir., Aug. 7, 2015).  The court held that Solomon served in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) for nearly three years, from 2011 through most of 2013, because the FVRA prohibited him from serving as the Acting General Counsel after President Obama nominated him for the position.

The case is important to all statutorily created agencies, as the FVRA affects all federal positions that require a presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. For most agencies, decisions by the unauthorized official are void ab initio, that is, from the moment they are made, and may not be ratified by a subsequently validly nominated and confirmed successor. However, the FVRA exempts the position of NLRB General Counsel from these provisions, instead making the decisions of an acting general counsel, or a regional director acting on his behalf, only voidable. The NLRB can raise different arguments as to why the decision should not be voided.

The case will be heard by the Court during its next term, which begins in October. A decision should issue before the term concludes in June 2017.