President's recess appointment power at high court
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
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
(13,297 posts)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
(13,218 posts)It may not be the last vote; it may simply be the last one that counts.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)all designed to keep our "precious little minds" from realizing or (especially) doing anything about, our state of slavery to the PTB.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)so the republicans don't realise this could happen to republican president? maybe they know something we don`t know.
warrior1
(12,325 posts)separation of powers?
onenote
(42,383 posts)are subject to judicial review. Would you say that the legislative branch's actions are "protected under the separation of powers"?
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)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
(8,032 posts)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
(31,493 posts)alp227
(31,962 posts)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 presidents ability to exercise the power.
It really is the Senates job to determine whether theyre in recess or whether theyre not, said Justice Elena Kagan, who was nominated by Obama and who directed her remarks during Mondays oral arguments at Donald B. Verrilli Jr., her successor as Obamas 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.