Obama Labor Board Nominations Made Official After Controversial Appointments, Court Rejection

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday formally nominated two members of a labor board whose appointments had been in doubt after a recent appeals court ruling.

The nominations set the stage for a likely battle over their confirmation with Senate Republicans, and marks the first move by the White House after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in January that the original appointments unconstitutional.

President Barack Obama sent to the Senate the nominations of Sharon Block and Richard Griffin Jr. to serve on the National Labor Relations Board.

Both nominees have been serving on the board since Obama installed them using so-called recess appointments in January 2012.

But the Washington appeals court last found that the Senate was not truly in recess, for the purposes of such appointments when Obama named them last year.

The sweeping ruling threw into question dozens of rulings the board issued in 2012 and raised the possibility that other appointments were similarly invalid.

Block was nominated for a term that expires in December 2014, and Griffin to a term that ends in August 2016.

(Reporting By Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)