Trump says he can adjourn Congress. He's misreading the Constitution.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Trump says he can adjourn Congress. He’s misreading the Constitution.

Congressional autonomy isn’t up for debate.

By Steve Vladeck
Steve Vladeck is a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, co-editor in chief of Just Security, co-host of the National Security Law Podcast and a CNN legal analyst.
April 16, 2020 at 8:50 a.m. EDT

For the second time this week, President Trump generated needless constitutional confusion Wednesday by suggesting that he might use his extremely limited power to adjourn Congress in a circumstance in which it clearly isn’t applicable. Bemoaning his inability to push through “recess appointments” he said:

“The Senate’s practice of gaveling into so-called pro forma sessions where no one is even there has prevented me from using the constitutional authority that we’re given under the recess provisions. The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees, or it should formally adjourn so that I can make recess appointments. We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government, and now more so than ever before because of the virus, and the problem. We have to do it. And we have to do whatever we have to do.”

Just like his ill-conceived boast Monday, that he has “absolute power” and that his “authority is total” to override local and state governments to order schools and businesses to re-open before the coronavirus pandemic has ebbed, his adjournment threat was hollow.

Leave aside that the president’s own party controls the Senate and has assented to the current legislative calendar. Trump’s argument is legally implausible, practically moot and another example of his attempts, guilefully or not, to move the Overton window on constitutional debate. He’s misreading the letter of the Constitution, and the spirit — even in a crisis, the founding document’s central purpose is to thwart the autocratic instinct “to do whatever we have to do.”

Taking the law first. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution provides that the President “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper.” What may not be clear from this text, but is abundantly clear from the Constitution’s context, is that the adjournment power was meant to limit the president — to confine to exactly one circumstance the power to send Congress home prematurely.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/16/adjourn-congress-trump-constitution/

[yellowcanine]

1. Can't believe there is not more outrage about this dictatorial move.

On the heels of his "absolute authority" statement this is a particular outrage. Where is Susan Collin's "concern"?

[MyOwnPeace]

2. She's busy........

writing a letter explaining how IQ45 has already learned his lesson - nothing to see here.

[CatMor]

3. Pretty sure he never read the Constitution.

[SoCalNative]

4. I doubt he's reading

let alone misreading anything. Probably his buddy Stephen Miller or Jared whispering this in his ear, so they are the ones who do not understand what it actually says.

[jmowreader]

5. Y'know, I really don't get this

Trump should, in theory, have no problem getting his nominees through. Mitch McConnell plugged a "simple majority" requirement for approval of presidential nominees into the rules of this Congress. If he can't get nominees through when he doesn't need any Democratic votes to do it, his nominees must be absolutely God-awful.