NLRB and Humphrey’s Executor

SpaceEx v. NLRB holds that the National Labor Relations Board’s “for-cause” removal protection for its five Members is likely unconstitutional because the Board, unlike the 1935 Federal Trade Commission, “is not a ‘mirror image’ of the FTC.” In the Fifth Circuit’s view, the Board wields extensive executive power—adjudicating unfair-labor-practice charges, directing elections, and petitioning federal courts for injunctions—yet lacks any statutory party-balancing requirement. Those differences place the NLRB outside the narrow safe harbor created by Humphrey’s Executor.

A dissent argued that an injunction should not issue absent proof that the contested provisions actually harmed the employers. No. 24-50627 (Aug. 19, 2025). (Mr. Humphrey appears above; history does not seem to have recorded an image of his executor.)