Supreme Court Limits President's recess appointment power

[DieHardBrownsFan]

JUDICIARY Supreme Court limits president's recess appointment power

Published June 26, 2014

FoxNews.com

The Supreme Court delivered a blow Thursday to President Obama, ruling that he went too far in making recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.

In a unanimous decision, the high court ruled in favor of Senate Republicans and limited the president's power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments.

The court upheld the general authority of the president to make recess appointments, but said Obama lacked the power to fill slots at the NLRB during a brief, three-day Senate recess in 2012.

Obama had argued that the Senate was on an extended holiday break and that the brief sessions it held every three days were a sham that was intended to prevent him from filling seats on the NLRB.

The justices rejected that argument.

The issue of recess appointments receded in importance after the Senate's Democratic majority changed the rules to make it harder for Republicans to block confirmation of most Obama appointees.

But the ruling's impact may be keenly felt by the White House next year if Republicans capture control of the Senate in the November election. The potential importance of the ruling lies in the Senate's ability to block the confirmation of judges and the leaders of independent agencies like the NLRB. A federal law gives the president the power to appoint acting heads of Cabinet-level departments to keep the government running.

Still, the outcome was the least significant loss possible for the administration. The justices, by a 5-4 vote, rejected a sweeping lower court ruling against the administration that would have made it virtually impossible for any future president to make recess appointments.

The lower court held that the only recess recognized by the Constitution is the once-a-year break between sessions of Congress. It also said that only vacancies that arise in that recess could be filled. So the high court has left open the possibility that a president, with a compliant Congress, could make recess appointments in the future.

A recess appointment can last no more than two years. Recess appointees who subsequently won Senate confirmation include Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William Brennan, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, two current NLRB members and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray. Former UN Ambassador John Bolton is among recess appointees who left office because they could not win a Senate vote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[calfoxwc]

Obamao is trying to accrue power to control things faster and faster,

in more illegal ways, more desperately.

 

Very bad direction. We really need the dems to lose the senate to

stop this president from sending our country into

very serious trouble.