Administrative Procedure-Enforcement of NLRB Orders-Power of Cour of Appeals to Modify Scope of Consent Order

A complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board charged respondents, an employer and two labor unions, with illegally maintaining a closed or preferential shop. Following the issuance of the complaint, a settlement agreement was reached in which respondents stipulated to waive a hearing and all other proceedings to which they might be entitled under the National Labor Relations Act or under rules and regulations of the Board. Respondents also consented to the entry of a broad cease-and-desist order and a subsequent decree in which they were ordered to refrain from unlawful preferential hiring arrangements with each other, or with any other employer or labor organization. When the NLRB petitioned for enforcement of the consent order, the First Circuit, on its own motion, excised the references to any other employer or labor organization. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed, one Justice dissenting. Section 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act deprives courts of appeals of power to modify, sua sponte, NLRB consent orders not contested before the Board even though the Board’s record contains no findings supporting such order.NLRB v. Ochoa Fertilizer Corp., 368 U.S. 318 (1961).