Supreme Court: illegal for NLRB to decide cases when only two of its five seats filled

A story by Washington Post reporters Peter Whorisky and Sonia Ryst discussed the Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision on the legality of NLRB decisions rendered by a depleted National Labor Relations Board. Before the board was reduced from five to two commissioners by political attrition, those still sitting voted to permit the reduced board to decide cases. In the period that followed, the two remaining commissioners (one Republican, one Democrat) decided approximately six hundred cases. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens declared it was illegal for the board to have decided cases with only two commissioners sitting. As a result of the court's decision, hundreds of cases may now have to be reconsidered.