No Time for Recess
January 5, 2012 In the ongoing tussle between the executive and legislative branches of government, President Obama stepped over a line and into history Wednesday, appointing four people to agency positions without Senate confirmation.
Though the U.S. Constitution gives presidents the right to bypass the confirmation process while the U.S. Senate is in recess, that wasn’t the case this week: The Senate was in session when Obama announced Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Senate had blocked Cordray’s nomination at every turn. Obama also appointed three new members to the National Labor Relations Board.
“(The recess appointment) power has been interpreted by scores of attorneys general and their designees in the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel for over 100 years to require an official, legal Senate recess of at least 10 to 25 days of duration,” wrote Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, in a Jan. 4 blog post. “The president’s purported recess appointment of Cordray would render the Senate’s advise-and-consent role to normal appointments almost meaningless. But it fits a pattern of extra-constitutional abuse by the White House that seems more interested in energizing a liberal base than safeguarding the office of the presidency.”
John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkley, who is well known in legal circles for advocating executive power, says the president basically challenged his own party — which controls the Senate — by deciding it wasn’t conducting legitimate business.
“Is the president going to have the authority to decide if the Supreme Court has deliberated too little on a case? Does Congress have the right to decide whether the president has really thought hard enough about granting a pardon?” Yoo wrote. “Under Obama’s approach, he could make a recess appointment anytime he is watching C-SPAN and feels that the senators are not working as hard as he did in the Senate (a fairly low bar).
“Even with my broad view of executive power, I’ve always thought that each branch has control over its own functions and has the right — if not the duty — to exclude the others as best it can from its own decisions.”
It remains to be seen whether the Democrat-led Senate will push back to regain its constitutional authority. It can refuse to support any agency-related legislation, conduct formal and non-formal oversight hearings and attempt to repeal portions of the Dodd-Frank law that created the agency. Furthermore, both legislative chambers could file a lawsuit challenging the appointments.
http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/01/05/no-t...
Though the U.S. Constitution gives presidents the right to bypass the confirmation process while the U.S. Senate is in recess, that wasn’t the case this week: The Senate was in session when Obama announced Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Senate had blocked Cordray’s nomination at every turn. Obama also appointed three new members to the National Labor Relations Board.
“(The recess appointment) power has been interpreted by scores of attorneys general and their designees in the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel for over 100 years to require an official, legal Senate recess of at least 10 to 25 days of duration,” wrote Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, in a Jan. 4 blog post. “The president’s purported recess appointment of Cordray would render the Senate’s advise-and-consent role to normal appointments almost meaningless. But it fits a pattern of extra-constitutional abuse by the White House that seems more interested in energizing a liberal base than safeguarding the office of the presidency.”
John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkley, who is well known in legal circles for advocating executive power, says the president basically challenged his own party — which controls the Senate — by deciding it wasn’t conducting legitimate business.
“Is the president going to have the authority to decide if the Supreme Court has deliberated too little on a case? Does Congress have the right to decide whether the president has really thought hard enough about granting a pardon?” Yoo wrote. “Under Obama’s approach, he could make a recess appointment anytime he is watching C-SPAN and feels that the senators are not working as hard as he did in the Senate (a fairly low bar).
“Even with my broad view of executive power, I’ve always thought that each branch has control over its own functions and has the right — if not the duty — to exclude the others as best it can from its own decisions.”
It remains to be seen whether the Democrat-led Senate will push back to regain its constitutional authority. It can refuse to support any agency-related legislation, conduct formal and non-formal oversight hearings and attempt to repeal portions of the Dodd-Frank law that created the agency. Furthermore, both legislative chambers could file a lawsuit challenging the appointments.
http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/01/05/no-t...
i REALIZE TRUTH, FACTS and things like thie don't matter much in America any more, but lets give this littleeveryday common sense a try...We have a president that has a liscens not only to practice Constutitional law, but to teach it in law school so since he has no idea how our constitution works will they be taking his liscens back and thaking those of the law students he taught liscense also?!?
Or are we just going to keep on keeping on being the most undereducated nation from the white house to the floors of congress with all of this uneducated leaders?????
What do you suggesst should be done to stop this fraud Jen? This must be reported right away to maybe Romney , gingrich or ron Paul he may know some constutitional law to help back up this claim, huh Jen? (smile)
Oh, but, didn't Bush do this over 30 times, but then he was not Black is that what makes the difference. skin color or our president being a Constutitional lawyer and he was not...loooooooooooool (smile0