NLRB Asks Justice Department for Opinion on Revised Ethics Plan (1)

The National Labor Relations Board has asked the Justice Department to issue an opinion on its recent ethics reforms amid a dispute between the agency’s Republican leadership and congressional Democrats.

NLRB Chairman John Ring said in a letter Friday to four Democratic lawmakers that he would ask the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to weigh in on the agency’s updated ethics policies—specifically, whether members must recuse themselves from cases when the agency’s internal ethics officer determines they may have a conflict of interest.

The board’s revised procedures, which followed an 18-month review that ended last fall, give a board ...