In the recent case of Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, No. 12-1115, slip op. (D.C. Cir Jan 25, 2013) the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned a 150 year old precedent when it ruled that three of President Obama's recess appointments to the NLRB were invalid. This ruling has wide ranging impacts not only on the National Labor Relations Board, but also the President's ability to fill vacancies for contentious government agencies. Moreover, Noel Canning has the possibility of overturning more than 100 Board decisions. If this decision is upheld it essentially means that from January 4, 2012, when the recess appointments were made, until the present, the Board technically did not have the required quorum, and thus all decisions made during this period are invalid. This includes not only decisions by the Board regarding unfair labor practices but also a number of rule changes. Some of recent rulings that may be invalidated include protections provided to employees posting on social media websites, and a number of new employee privacy rights. This brings up two important questions. The first is whether retroactive decisions could be overturned (could parties have previous determinations overturned, e.g. giving employers the right to terminate employees who were previously deemed protected), or would equity not allow such a result. The second is how, given the state of partisan politics, future Presidents will be able to fill vacancies to controversial agencies such as the EPA, the Department of Energy, the NLRB, or the Consumer Protection Board if the power to make recess appointments is no longer available?