Administrative State
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TheNational Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is anindependent federal agency established in 1935.^[1]

Noteworthy events

U.S. Supreme Court permits President Trump's firing of NLRB member (2025 )

In a 6-3 vote on May 22, 2025, the Supreme Court granted PresidentDonald Trump (R) the power to remove members of independent executive agencies without cause. The decision was not final, and the ruling stated that it did not apply to theFederal Reserve. This decision came after President Trump fired National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox on January 27, 2025, three years before the expiration of her term, leaving the NLRB without a quorum. This was the first time that a president has ever fired a member of the NLRB. The temporary Supreme Court decision put on hold the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's ruling to reinstate Wilcox and restore a NLRB quorum.^[2][3]

NLRB rules that agency ALJs were properly appointed (2018)

The commissioners of theNational Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled on August 6, 2018, that the agency's ALJs were validly appointed by the agency pursuant to the Appointments Clause of theUnited States Constitution. The commissioners' unanimous vote rejected a challenge by Westrock Services Inc., a graphics printing company, that argued for the dismissal of the company's case before the NLRB on the grounds that the agency's ALJs had not been properly appointed.^[4][5]

Westrock claimed that the NLRB's ALJs had not been appointed by the appropriate department head. The company argued that only the heads of cabinet-level agencies and the departments included under 5 U.S.C. § 101 constituted department heads for the purposes of the Appointments Clause. As such, Westrock argued that the NLRB commissioners did not have the authority to ratify their ALJ appointments.^[4][5]

The NLRB commissioners rejected Westrock's claims and based their dismissal on theUnited States Supreme Court's decision inLucia v. SEC, which held that the ALJs of theSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are inferior officers of the United States who must be appointed by the SEC commissioners, rather than hired by agency staff, in accordance with the Appointments Clause. The NLRB commissioners also citedFree Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which held that the SEC, as a “freestanding component of the Executive Branch, not subordinate to or contained within any other such component, ... constitutes a ‘Departmen[t]’ for the purposes of the Appointments Clause.” Therefore, the NLRB concluded that its commissioners, like those of the SEC, jointly function as a department head for the purposes of the Appointment Clause.^[5]

Westrock had not responded to the ruling as of August 7, 2018. The company can appeal the decision in federal court.^[4]

U.S. Supreme Court upholds employer arbitration agreements, declines to applyChevron deference (2018)

On Monday, May 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that arbitration agreements between employers and employees are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The Supreme Court ruling reversed and remanded a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which had ruled that the agreement violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and was not enforceable under the FAA.

The case involved a dispute between Epic Systems Corporation and a group of its employees regarding an arbitration agreement for wage-and-hour claims. In writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch observed that the case did not qualify forChevron deference—a principle of judicial review in which a federal court defers to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute that the agency administers.Chevron did not apply, according to Gorsuch, because no ambiguity existed in the NLRA statute, which is administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Instead, Gorsuch wrote that the NLRB had sought to "interpret [the NLRA] in a way that limits the work of the Arbitration Act, which the agency does not administer."

Gorsuch further stated that Congress had put forth clear instructions for the enforcement of arbitration agreements in the NLRA and that any effort to change the policy must come from Congress itself. He wrote, "The policy may be debatable but the law is clear: Congress has instructed that arbitration agreements like those before us must be enforced as written. While Congress is of course always free to amend this judgment, we see nothing suggesting it did so in the NLRA—much less that it manifested a clear intention to displace the Arbitration Act.”^[6][7]

See also

• Agencies and offices of the administrative state
• Ballotpedia's administrative state coverage

External links

• National Labor Relations Board homepage
• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

v • e The Administrative State Main The Administrative State Project main page •Administrative State Project Index •Glossary of administrative state terms •Quotes about the administrative state •Administrative state •Rulemaking •Deference •Adjudication •Nondelegation doctrine •Ballotpedia's administrative state legislation tracker Pillars Agency control •Executive control •Judicial control •Legislative control •Public control Reporting Changes to the Federal Register •Completed OIRA review of federal administrative agency rules •Federal agency rules repealed under the Congressional Review Act •Historical additions to the Federal Register, 1936-2016 Laws Administrative Procedure Act •Antiquities Act •Civil Service Reform Act •Clayton Antitrust Act •Communications Act of 1934 •Congressional Review Act •Electronic Freedom of Information Act •Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 •Federal Housekeeping Statute •Federal Reserve Act •Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 •Freedom of Information Act •Government in the Sunshine Act •Independent Offices Appropriations Act of 1952 •Information Quality Act •Interstate Commerce Act •National Labor Relations Act •Paperwork Reduction Act •Pendleton Act •Privacy Act of 1974 •Regulatory Flexibility Act •REINS Act •REINS Act (Wisconsin) •Securities Act of 1933 •Securities Exchange Act of 1934 •Sherman Antitrust Act •Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act •Truth in Regulating Act •Unfunded Mandates Reform Act Cases Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner •A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States •Association of Data Processing Service Organizations v. Camp •Auer v. Robbins •Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council •Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe •Federal Trade Commission (FTC) v. Standard Oil Company of California •Field v. Clark •Food and Drug Administration v. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation •Humphrey's Executor v. United States •Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) v. Chadha •J.W. Hampton Jr. & Company v. United States •Lucia v. SEC •Marshall v. Barlow's •Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency •Mistretta v. United States •National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius •National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning Company •National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. •Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan •Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation •Skidmore v. Swift & Co. •United States v. Lopez •United States v. Western Pacific Railroad Co. •Universal Camera Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board •Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council •Wayman v. Southard •Weyerhaeuser Company v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service •Whitman v. American Trucking Associations •Wickard v. Filburn •Wiener v. United States Terms Adjudication (administrative state) •Administrative judge •Administrative law •Administrative law judge •Administrative state •Arbitrary-or-capricious test •Auer deference •Barrier to entry •Bootleggers and Baptists •Chevron deference (doctrine) •Civil servant •Civil service •Code of Federal Regulations •Codify (administrative state) •Comment period •Compliance costs •Congressional Record •Coordination (administrative state) •Deference (administrative state) •Direct and indirect costs (administrative state) •Enabling statute •Ex parte communication (administrative state) •Executive agency •Federal law •Federal Register •Federalism •Final rule •Formal rulemaking •Formalism (law) •Functionalism (law) •Guidance (administrative state) •Hybrid rulemaking •Incorporation by reference •Independent federal agency •Informal rulemaking •Joint resolution of disapproval (administrative state) •Major rule •Negotiated rulemaking •Nondelegation doctrine •OIRA prompt letter •Organic statute •Pragmatism (law) •Precautionary principle •Promulgate •Proposed rule •Publication rulemaking •Regulatory budget •Regulatory capture •Regulatory dark matter •Regulatory impact analysis •Regulatory policy officer •Regulatory reform officer •Regulatory review •Rent seeking •Retrospective regulatory review •Risk assessment (administrative state) •Rulemaking •Separation of powers •Significant regulatory action •Skidmore deference •Statutory authority •Substantive law and procedural law •Sue and settle •Sunset provision •Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions •United States Code •United States Statutes at Large Bibliography "Administrative Law - The 20th Century Bequeaths an 'Illegitimate Exotic' in Full and Terrifying Flower" by Stephen P. Dresch (2000) "Confronting the Administrative Threat" by Philip Hamburger and Tony Mills (2017) "Constitutionalism after the New Deal" by Cass R. Sunstein (1987) Federalist No. 23 by Alexander Hamilton (1787) "From Administrative State to Constitutional Government" by Joseph Postell (2012) "Interring the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule (2002) "Rulemaking as Legislating" by Kathryn Watts (2015) "The Checks & Balances of the Regulatory State" by Paul R. Verkuil (2016) "The Myth of the Nondelegation Doctrine" by Keith E. Whittington and Jason Iuliano (2017) "The Progressive Origins of the Administrative State: Wilson, Goodnow, and Landis" by Ronald J. Pestritto (2007) "The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State" by Gary Lawson (1994) "The Study of Administration" by Woodrow Wilson (1887) "The Threat to Liberty" by Steven F. Hayward (2017) "Why the Modern Administrative State Is Inconsistent with the Rule of Law" by Richard A. Epstein (2008) Agencies Administrative Conference of the United States •United States Civil Service Commission •U.S. Government Accountability Office •U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs •U.S. Office of Management and Budget