Bottling company loses labor dispute after U.S. high court detour
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The soft drink bottling company that succeeded in reining in U.S. presidential powers by challenging the way President Barack Obama appointed National Labor Relations Board members has lost the underlying dispute that prompted that Supreme Court battle.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that there was "no merit" to Noel Canning Co's latest appeal of a 2012 NLRB finding that the Yakima, Washington-based company had violated labor law by failing to comply with a collective bargaining agreement.
Noel Canning objected to the board's decision, arguing that some members of the NLRB panel that handled the matter were so-called recess appointees improperly named to the board by Obama without U.S. Senate approval.
Obama used his recess appointment power - appointing executive branch officials when senators are on recess to posts that ordinarily require Senate confirmation - to name three members to the five-member NLRB in January 2012.
Noel Canning took its case to the Supreme Court, which in 2014 ruled that Obama's appointments were unlawful because he had circumvented the Senate by naming the board members when the legislative chamber was not formally adjourned.
The company's case was then heard in 2014 by a newly constituted NRLB panel, which reached the same conclusion as the original panel. That decision was upheld on Tuesday by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
