The National Labor Relations Board

The ability for the federal government to regulate businesses’ activity is given in the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 is known as the commerce clause; it states, “Congress shall have the Power…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes” (Reed, 173). Through the commerce clause, the government is able to regulate business activity by the use of administrative agencies, which is defined as “a governmental regulatory body that controls and supervises a particular activity or area of public interest and administers and enforces a particular body of law related to that activity or interest” (Administrative Agency, 1). There are two types of regulatory authority that agencies may possess; quasi-legislative and/or quasi-judicial. Quasi-legislative means that agencies can make rules and regulations that have the same impact as a law created by federal legislation. Quasi-judicial authority gives agencies the power to make rulings, just like in federal courts.

This paper will focus on one particular agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NRLB was created by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act. Besides creating the NLRB, the Act also provides three other key provisions:

1. Providing employees the right to select a union to act as their collective bargaining agent.

2. Outlawing certain conduct by employers that generally has the effect of either preventing the organization of employees or emasculating their unions where they do exist; these forbidden acts are called unfair labor practices.

3. Authorizing the NLRB to conduct hearings on unfair labor practice allegations and, if unfair practices are found to exist, to t...

... middle of paper ...

...se to be correct and will only analyze the record of the agency’s proceedings. In a judicial review of an agency’s ruling, the court does not “(1) reweigh the evidence, (2) make independent determinations of fact, or (3) substitute their view of the evidence for that of the agency” (Reed, 193). Therefore, if the record shows that the agency did not follow certain procedures or if they ignored certain facts, then the ruling can be overturned. It should be noted that it is very unlikely that a court will overturn a ruling by an agency.

Works Cited

“Administrative Agency - Legal Definition." Legal Definitions. Web. 09 July 2011.

.

Reed, O. Lee, Peter J. Shedd, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro, Jere W. Morehead. The Legal and

Regulatory Environment of Business. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print