As of April 2026, the National Labor Relations Board is functioning again, but not at full strength. The Board officially has five seats, yet only three are currently filled: Chairman James R. Murphy, Member David M. Prouty, and Member Scott A. Mayer. Murphy and Mayer were sworn in on January 7, 2026, restoring the Board’s quorum, and President Trump designated Murphy as chairman on March 27, 2026. The current Board is therefore operating with a 2-1 Republican majority.
The agency’s enforcement side is also back on stable footing. Crystal Stowe Carey was sworn in as General Counsel on January 7, 2026, and the General Counsel remains institutionally separate from the Board itself. On February 27, 2026, Carey issued case-handling guidance directing regional offices to focus on priority investigations and the protection of employees’ rights of free association.
In practice, that means the NLRB is active, not dormant. It is issuing decisions again, and in its first published decision after regaining quorum, the Board said regional directors may continue exercising delegated authority even if the Board later loses a quorum. The agency is also still taking in new cases; its public filings page shows fresh Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges and election petitions filed in multiple regions.
Even so, the Board’s legal footing remains unsettled. In December 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that Congress cannot constitutionally bar the President from removing NLRB members without cause, reversing lower-court rulings that had favored former member Gwynne Wilcox. That followed the Supreme Court’s May 22, 2025, order staying the district court rulings and allowing Wilcox’s removal to remain effective while the case proceeded.
The next phase will likely turn on appointments and on the Supreme Court’s broader treatment of independent agencies. On April 13, 2026, the White House sent to the Senate the nomination of James Macy to fill the seat previously held by Marvin Kaplan and, also, renominated Prouty, whose current term runs through August 2026, for another term. Separately, the Supreme Court already heard argument in an FTC case asking whether Humphrey’s Executor[1]should be overruled, a question that could have major consequences for the constitutional design of agencies like the NLRB. So, the most accurate description of the NLRB today is this: it is open, staffed enough to act, and actively processing cases, but its long-term structure and political direction are still very much in play.
[1] Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), held that Congress may limit the President’s power to remove commissioners of independent agencies like the FTC to specified causes, rather than allowing at-will removal. The case is significant because it distinguished purely executive officers from officials performing quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, making it a foundational precedent for the constitutionality of independent agencies.
