DIGEST
Justices to determine authority of 2-member NLRB
A 25-foot-tall statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, with a suitcase at its feet, travels New York's waterways to announce the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit that opens next month at the Discovery Times Square Exposition.
(Seth Wenig/associated Press)
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SUPREME COURT
2-member NLRB's authority in dispute
The Supreme Court questioned Tuesday whether the leading federal agency that referees labor-management disputes can make decisions when it has only two people sitting on its five-member board.
The full National Labor Relations Board delegated its authority to the smaller group when it became obvious that battles between the White House and Congress over nominations to the board were going to keep it from getting enough new members to fill out a three-member quorum.
"It doesn't seem to you like an evasion of the whole purpose of the quorum requirement?" asked Justice Antonin Scalia.
The board has operated with only two members for more than two years after Democrats refused to confirm President George W. Bush's nominees because of complaints that they were pro-business. Republicans are blocking President Obama's nominees, complaining that some of them favor union interests.
Decisions in hundreds of worker-employer battles could be thrown out if the Supreme Court rules against the NLRB. Such a ruling could also force the NLRB's shutdown when the Senate and the White House can't agree on who should be on the board.
Federal appellate courts have split on whether a short-staffed board could keep working.
-- Associated Press
NEBRASKA
CSI chief convicted of evidence tampering
A Nebraska judge convicted a top crime-scene investigator of evidence tampering on Tuesday, after prosecutors argued that the investigator planted blood from a slaying victim in a car linked to two innocent suspects to bolster the case against them.
