Did SCOTUS Spark A Constitutional Crisis?

[DonViejo]

Supreme Court May Have Opened The Door To A Constitutional Crisis

SAHIL KAPUR – JULY 4, 2014, 9:00 AM EDT
The Supreme Court may have laid the groundwork for a constitutional crisis if Republicans win control of the Senate in the November elections, creating the possibility of a stalemate between the executive and legislative branches when it comes to keeping the government operational.

The landmark ruling in Noel Canning v. NLRB last week eliminated the president's only fallback option to appoint leaders to government agencies when the Senate won't act. The justices unanimously said the Constitution forbids the president from making recess appointments unless the Senate is officially on recess.

If Republicans control the Senate, they could stop President Barack Obama from naming anyone to a top government position by technically keeping the Senate in session even when members are out of town or on break. (These are known as pro forma sessions, when the Senate gavels in and out but doesn't conduct business; the Supreme Court said the president may not make recess appointments during these periods.) In the worst case scenario, it could paralyze major federal departments and agencies.

"You could potentially end up with a real crisis of governance," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar with the American Enterprise Institute.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/noel-canning-supreme-court-constitutional-crisis

[yeoman6987]

1. I hope not

We won't be able to change the constitution no matter what we want. We can't even get a simple bill through both the Senate and House. How are we going to change the Constitution? It won't be happening anytime soon.

[Fred Sanders]

2. When the Birchers are voted out, is when change can happen, no?

[yeoman6987]

3. I imagine that would be a good time

However, I don't know when that is going to happen.

[Kablooie]

5. They only seem to be gaining in strength.

The more disasters they create the more extreme they become and for some reason they suck in all conservatives like a vacuum.
We don't see a mass exodus from the extremist philosophy, only deeper entrenchment.

We keep hoping that conservatives will wake up and see what the extremists are doing to them but it never happens.

I don't think they will just go away.
It will take some kind of cataclysmic event to resolve this and it will come some day.

[Fred Sanders]

6. They are not gaining strength so much as are just growing louder, with the giant megaphone handed

to them by the legal vacuum left after Citizens United and Republican obstruction for new laws.

Only the voting will tell.

[Kablooie]

7. The Supreme Court is locking extremist philosophy into permanent law.

This makes the extremists more powerful and the more power they get, the more they will take.

Our country is making a wide, permanent swing to the right.

[NYC Liberal]

4. This has always been possible. Dems did it to prevent Bush from making

recess appointments in 2007-2008.