Marathon Pundit: NLRB overreach: "For the kids" edition

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

NLRB overreach: "For the kids" edition

Chicago Marathon, 2010

There is a lot of NLRB and union overreach to report on today. First, a couple of items from The Hill.

Some legal experts, including those who have sided with President Obama on other constitutional issues, think there is a good chance the courts could overturn his recent recess appointments.

Legal experts said courts could invalidate Obama’s appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) because there is scant precedent on the issue.

"It's untested ground. If I were a judge, I could write out an opinion either way. There's no clear precedent,” said Charles Fried, a constitutional expert at Harvard Law School who served as solicitor general under former President Reagan.

And the other...

Rep. Jeff Landry (La.) and 20 other House Republicans introduced legislation this week that would limit the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to operate as long as they are headed by appointees who were recess-appointed while the Senate was not in recess.

The bill is a reaction to President Obama's Jan. 4 appointment of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB, and three other appointees to the NLRB. Republicans in both the House and Senate said these appointments were an illegal power grab, as the Senate was not in recess, and instead was holding pro forma sessions every few days.

Landry earlier this month warned that he would look to defend the Constitution against Obama's recess appointments to these boards. His bill, the Executive Appointments Reform Act, specifically attacks the the CFPB by limiting the powers of that board if the director is recess-appointed while the Senate is not in recess.

"No rule, order or other administrative action shall be considered final if the director was appointed during a recess of the Senate and the position of director was vacant while the Senate was in session, until the director has been confirmed by the Senate," the bill states.

Say Anything Blog: Absurd: Union Invokes Martin Luther King In Criticizing American Crystal

LaborUnionReport: AFL-CIO To Spend Millions On Ineffective Ad Aimed At Improving Image

It's not just Big Labor behind the opposition to Indiana's proposal to become a right-to-work state. Billionaire liberal currency trader George Soros is involved.

Hoosier Access: Soros Funds Indiana RTW Opposition

More from the same blog: Not Constitutional? No Problem.

The Blaze:

Sixteen-year-old boys may like it, but good luck finding someone else who can logically defend why Buffalo teachers are getting botox, hair removal, liposuction and other cosmetic surgery paid for by the public school system.

The perk has been in the Buffalo teachers' contract for at least 30 years, making national news when it was revealed that the rider cost the district $9 million 2009. When the audacious benefits went public in October 2010 the president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation said that the union agreed to give up the benefit in the next contract.

“We‘ve already told them we’re going to give [it] up in these negotiations," Philip Rumore, president of the teacher union, told The Buffalo News. "We've told everybody it's going to be gone in the next contract."

That was over a year ago, and nothing has changed, with the benefit's estimate current annual cost at $5.2 million.