The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision (with a heated split on the reasoning), ruled that the recess appointments to the NLRB made by President Obama during a three-day recess were invalid.

You can download the decision here.

Much of the early instant analysis has focused on the recess appointment power itself. But for those in labor & employment law, the decision appears to have a much greater impact.

Because by invaliding the recess appointments, the court also affirmed the lower court’s ruling that a decision made by the NLRB composed of the recess appointments was void.

Thus, that suggests that dozens (or by some measures, hundreds) of controversial decisions by the NLRB made with these recess appointments are likely invalid as well.

Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t explicitly say that, but that appears to be the logical result of the court’s ruling.

But before you throw out everything, the decision may have a limited impact in one respect: The NLRB has had a full slate of board members since July 2013.  The propriety of those decisions is not in doubt.  The slate is decidedly more union-friendly so while the court decision throws out a bunch of cases, it creates more of a logistical mess than anything else.