The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Feb. 19 issued an order of abeyance on an appeal of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) controversial “ambush” elections rule by the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW). The order suspends consideration of the appeal “pending further order of the court.”  

CDW filed the request with the appeals court in the wake of a  Jan. 25 ruling, which found President Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill NLRB vacancies in early 2012. CDW’s request has the potential to roll back the impact of Obama’s most controversial NLRB appointee, Craig Becker, whose tenure on the board included the ambush elections rule. Under the rule, the amount of time between when a union files a representation petition and an election takes place would be reduced from the current average of 40 days to as few as 17 days. 

The rule became effective April 30, 2012 but was overturned May 14, 2012, by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The NLRB appealed that decision Aug. 7, 2012. 

For more information about CDW’s ongoing litigation in the ambush elections case, visit https://myprivateballot.com/litigation/nlrb-ambush-election-lawsuit/.