Discussion: Supreme Court Curtails Obama's Recess Appointment Power

TPM Article Topics
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Okay, now that I’ve looked at it, this is mostly a win for the Executive branch. There were three things the Administration said were “recesses”–breaks between one Congress and the next, breaks when the Senate adjourns for a vacation, and breaks when the Senate is pretending it hasn’t adjourned for a vacation by making a couple of guys stay behind and hold pro forma sessions so the president can’t make recess appointments (a technique Reid invented to thwart Bush’s tendency to use recess appointments to appoint people who had already been rejected like Bolton.)

The majority rejected the extremist 11th Circuit position that, notwithstanding 200 years of practice by the political branches, the only 'recesses" were the ones between Congresses but also saying that if the Senate leaves a few guys behind to pretend like the chamber is still in session, the president has to honor the charade.

They also notably (notably because Kennedy was with the majority) rebuked Scalia and Roberts desire to once egain engage in radical, rawly partisan activism under the pretense of “originalism.” By decorous Supreme Court standards, that was some first class smackdownage.

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Before “there” embarrassed? Guess you skipped homophone class because you thought homophones were part of the gay agenda

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In other words: No Mr. Obama President, you can’t do what you want when you want, we have laws and a Constitution you know?

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Pro Forma sessions are a result of the John Bolton recess appointment.

Harry Reid started it and now they need to be eliminated entirely.

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Actually, the problem is that there are too many appointed positions. Need to eliminate all but the highest posts.

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Smells like parody trolling. Can I get a Poe check on aisle 3, please?

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Wrong.

Pro Forma sessions need to be eliminated entirely… they are a farce.

There is NO work going on in a session that lasts 30 seconds.

The Court should have struck that down .

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Actually, the Supreme Court made the comment that ALL Presidents misuse the power of recess appointments. Nuance isn’t the latest scent from Prince Matchabelli, bagger.

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“The ruling was relatively narrow and could have been much worse for the Obama administration.”

And yet the front page says it was a major blow to Obama. Which is it? Narrow ruling, or major blow?

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32

Depends on whether you live in the Reality-Based World or the Hype-Based World.

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33

Perhaps columns on SCOTUS decisions should be written by a trained lawyer and not a political reporter.

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Thanks for a calm reading.

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Or perhaps they should consult SCOTUSBLOG instead of the AP.

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Only during pro forma sessions.

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They probably get paid for AP “product placement.”

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Click-bait for TPM. It’s deeply annoying. But hey, if media want to misrepresent the facts in order to catch eye-balls, why should I care?

Why? Because TPM keeps begging for support. Crap like this makes me far less likely to re-subscribe.

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Well, more of a calm fast reading of the syllabus and calm quick scanning of the text, really.

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Sing it. It’s utter nonsense.

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Yeah, but it’s the calm part that’s welcome, unlike the hyperbolic headline from TPM which completely misrepresents the ruling.

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So, going forward, what will happen now?

The problem still is, there are a lot of vacancies that require confirmation that the GOTea is blocking through every possible process, some of which are “tradition” based and not enshrined in any rules. Things like home-state senators refusing to cooperate with appointments, overall refusal to cooperate with unanimous-consent motions, and until recently, filibusters. Not to mention that the House will not consent to the Senate adjourning for more than 3 days.

What does Obama do next, and in fact, what CAN he do?

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