US News

Court slaps O

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s use of recess appointments to fill National Labor Relations Board vacancies was unconstitutional, an appeals court ruled yesterday.

The “appointments were invalid from their inception,” the US Court of Appeals for DC ruled.

Obama acted while Congress was on holiday but not officially in recess and after Senate Republicans continually blocked any pro-union nominee to the board.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear a White House appeal, but if the ruling stands, it would void hundreds of NLRB decisions and call into question Obama’s other recess appointments.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hailed the ruling as “a victory for accountability in government.”

But White House spokesman Jay Carney said the ruling “contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations.”