The AFL-CIO supports the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and urges the Senate to support cloture and to vote for her confirmation. As President Obama's nominee for the appeals court, Halligan has an impressive record in public service. Halligan served as the solicitor general for the state of New York and as general counsel for the New York County District Attorney’s office. She has garnered broad support, ranging from law enforcement groups, appellate advocates and women’s bar associations.  

The District of Columbia Circuit is an important court for the union movement. This crucially important court remains dominated by Republican appointees. The circuit court is the court that most closely oversees the actions of federal agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the Wage and Hour Division at the Department of Labor and other divisions of the Labor Department, as well as appeals of unfair labor practice (ULP) decisions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). 

With the U.S. Supreme Court taking fewer and fewer National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) cases over the past quarter century, the District of Columbia Circuit has become, in effect, the Supreme Court of labor cases. Any employer found to have violated federal labor law by the board can challenge the ruling in the appeals court.  Since the 1990s, a growing number of employers have taken advantage of this opportunity: Approximately 30 percent of all NLRB review cases are heard by the District of Columbia Circuit. This is significant to all workers and their families, because the decisions of the District of Columbia Circuit have national affect.  

The impact of the District of Columbia Circuit on workers’ lives is exemplified by its unprecedented Jan. 25, 2013, ruling in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, where a three-judge panel of Republican judges struck down President Obama’s recess appointments of board members Richard Griffin, Terrence Flynn and Sharon Block to the NLRB. The Noel Canning case is inconsistent with the decisions of three other circuit courts (two of them decisions by the entire court and not just three-member panels) on recess appointments. As the AFL-CIO Executive Council explained in its February statement:

By the court’s logic [in Noel Canning], more than 300 recess appointments made by Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Obama and both Presidents Bush were invalid—including 141 appointments made by President George W. Bush alone. It’s a shocking and far-reaching decision that dramatically and painfully illustrates the consequences of Senate Republicans exploiting Senate rules to prevent President Obama from getting all but two of his nominees confirmed to the NLRB and any of his nominees confirmed to the District of Columbia Circuit.