A federal judge in Charleston, South Carolina, has struck down the requirement of the National Labor Relations Board that employers post an employee rights poster as of April 30, 2012. The decision comes on the heels of a decision from another judge, this one in the District of Columbia, who ruled that the requirement was lawful but that certain enforcement mechanisms related to the posting requirement were unlawful. Employers are thus currently left with two different and conflicting interpretations of the NLRB's authority to make and enforce its poster rule.

In the South Carolina case, the U.S. and state Chambers of Commerce argued that the NLRB's requirement, made by agency regulation, was not authorized by the National Labor Relations Act and therefore violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Arguing in support of its poster rule, the NLRB contended chiefly that Section 6 of the Act allowed the poster rule as one "necessary to carry out the" Act.