Labor Board Seeks to Upscale Forum for Rulemaking Challenges

The National Labor Relations Board is pushing to make federal appeals courts, not trial courts, the first stop for judicial review of its regulations, potentially accelerating challenges to its future rulemaking efforts.

The NLRB asked a Washington federal court to send a pending case involving the AFL-CIO’s challenge to one of the board’s union election-related rules to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The labor federation on Sept. 1 told Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell it opposes the transfer.

A different federal judge previously rejected the NLRB’s request to shift a separate AFL-CIO lawsuit ...