President's recess appointment power at high court

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans are squaring off at the Supreme Court over the president's power to temporarily fill high-level positions.

The high court is hearing arguments Monday in a politically charged dispute that also is the first in the nation's history to explore the meaning of a provision of the Constitution known as the recess appointments clause. Under the provision, the president may make temporary appointments to positions that otherwise require confirmation by the Senate, but only when the Senate is in recess.

The court battle is an outgrowth of the increasing partisanship and political stalemate that have been hallmarks of Washington over the past 20 years, and especially since Obama took office in 2009.

Senate Republicans' refusal to allow votes for nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau led the president to make the temporary, or recess, appointments in January 2012.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140113/DAB9Q3OG0.html

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In this Dec. 19, 2013 file photo, a view of the Supreme Court can be seen from the view from near the top of the Capitol Dome on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a clash between President Obama and Senate Republicans over the power granted the president in the Constitution to make temporary appointments to fill high-level positions. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

[tomm2thumbs]

1. 12 more years of Democratic Presidents ought to clear that joint out, and but good!

All the more reason the mid-term elections are so important as well...



Vote... like it was the last vote you ever get a chance to make!

[rock]

4. "Vote... like it was the last vote you ever get a chance to make!"

It may not be the last vote; it may simply be the last one that counts.

[dotymed]

2. Kabuki theater..

all designed to keep our "precious little minds" from realizing or (especially) doing anything about, our state of slavery to the PTB.

[madrchsod]

3. the supremes are unelected the kings and queens of our country

so the republicans don't realise this could happen to republican president? maybe they know something we don`t know.

[warrior1]

5. shouldn't he be protected under the

separation of powers?

[onenote]

9. The constitutionality of executive branch actions, as well as legislative branch actions

are subject to judicial review. Would you say that the legislative branch's actions are "protected under the separation of powers"?

[L0oniX]

6. Obama should nominate repukes like usual? ...that way he will continue to be loved? ...by repukes???

NOT! Yeah ...uhm ...hey ...hows that "reaching across the aisle" workin for yuh?

Oh and where was the court action when Bush did the same thing over a christmas recess?

[Psephos]

7. This is a lot less of an issue now that simple majorities are all that are needed for confirmation.

A welcome change in the Senate rules, for sure. At least as long as WH and Senate stay D.

I remember during *'s last term that Reid held "Pro Forma" Senate sessions every few days during recess to prevent * from making recess appointments.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

[L0oniX]

8. "Live by the sword, die by the sword" indeed.

[alp227]

10. Update from the Washington Post:

Supreme Court questions Obama’s recess appointment power

Supreme Court justices across the ideological spectrum seemed inclined Monday to find President Obama lacked the constitutional authority to make high-level government appointments at a time he said the Senate was not available to provide its advice and consent.

The Constitution provides the president the ability to make such appointments when the Senate is in recess. But when Obama made appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012, the Senate was holding pro forma sessions every three days precisely to thwart the president’s ability to exercise the power.

“It really is the Senate’s job to determine whether they’re in recess or whether they’re not,” said Justice Elena Kagan, who was nominated by Obama and who directed her remarks during Monday’s oral arguments at Donald B. Verrilli Jr., her successor as Obama’s solicitor general.

But Kagan also appeared to be advocating the narrowest way to resolve what Justice Stephen G. Breyer called “political fights between Congress and the president.”