Employer Attacks on NLRB Rulings Find Fuel in Chevron’s Demise

Employers are poised to test how much the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision on judicial review of agency actions can help bolster their challenges to National Labor Relations Board rulings.

The Supreme Court repeatedly deferred to the NLRB’s readings of federal labor law long before it established a general standard in its now defunct 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which called for courts to accept reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous laws.

But in a post-Chevron world, the prospect of courts taking a harder look at the labor board’s judgments looms large despite ...