Courday is here to stay....HOO-RAY!

[Taichiliberal]

Richard Cordray Nomination: Obama Using Recess Appointment Amid GOP Opposition

The president's move is notable for two reasons. For one, Obama rarely invokes his recess appointment authority, compared to past presidents. Until now, he has made 28 recess appointments. By contrast, former President George W. Bush made more than 170 during his presidency and former President Bill Clinton made almost 140. Secondly, and more importantly, Obama is making a recess appointment when the Senate isn't technically in recess -- a risky step that could spark a court challenge.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer made the case that it is fully within the president's right to make recess appointments when Republicans are relying on "a gimmick" to prevent the Senate from going into recess:

"Here are the facts: The Constitution gives the President the authority to make temporary recess appointments to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, a power all recent Presidents have exercised. The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks. In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called 'pro forma' sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President's constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running. Legal experts agree. In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham 'pro forma' sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power," Pfeiffer wrote on the White House Blog.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...id10|htmlws-main-bb|dl5|sec1_lnk3&pLid=124907

 

[RockX]

Obama's contempt for the Constitution


How ironic that our president who once was a professor of the Constitution should have such a cavalier approach to that document as he is placing his nominee, Richard Cordray as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as three people to the NLRB, through a supposed recess appointment. Previously, when Bush did this with John Bolton to the United Nations, Senator Obama was appalled, calling Bolton "damaged goods." Harry Reid was similarly angry,

‘An end run around the Senate and the Constitution.’ “I will keep the Senate in pro forma session to block the president from doing an end run around the Senate and the Constitution with his controversial nominations.”

​

However, the Congress was in recess at that time so, even as Obama recognized at the time, this was within the President's constitutional powers. That is why Reid then adopted the tactic of not going out of session in order to block Bush from any more recess appointments.

Now Obama has done an even bigger end-run around the Constitution since the Congress is not in recess. John Steele Gordon explains how the House blocked this from happening.

The Constitution requires that neither house of Congress can recess for more than three days without the consent of the other house. The House of Representatives has not given that consent and has been holding pro forma sessions every three days, forcing the Senate to do likewise. When Democrats controlled the Senate in the last two years of the Bush administration, they held these pro forma sessions during recesses precisely to prevent President Bush from using the recess appointment power, which he didn’t.

​

And according to Clinton's Justice Department, these three days are enough to determine that the Congress is indeed in session.

In 1993, however, a Department of Justice brief implied that the President may make a recess appointment during a recess of more than three days. In doing so, the brief linked the minimum recess length with Article I, Section 5, clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution. This “Adjournments Clause” provides that “Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days ….”Arguing that the recess during which the appointment at issue in the case was made was of sufficient length, the brief stated: “If the recess here at issue were of three days or less, a closer question would be presented. The Constitution restricts the Senate’’s ability to adjourn its session for more than three days without obtaining the consent of the House of Representatives. … It might be argued that this means that the Framers did not consider one, two and three day recesses to be constitutionally significant. …Apart from the three-day requirement noted above, the Constitution provides no basis for limiting the recess to a specific number of days. Whatever number of days is deemed required, that number would of necessity be completely arbitrary.”

​

Remember that this recess appointment provision was put in the Constitution in the 18th century when it was envisioned that Congress would be part-time and out of session much of the year. In those days before mass communication and quick transportation, the Founders thought that we needed a way for the President to put people into place when Congress was back home and couldn't be expected back for a long time. It was certainly never envisioned that three days would be a long enough break to assert that Congress, without having formally going into recess, could be asserted to be in recess unilaterally by the President. That would be a total violation of the separation of powers, the sort of thing that Democrats were always warning about George W. Bush, but now seem not to worry about Obama doing.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Richard Cordray Nomination: Obama Using Recess Appointment Amid GOP Opposition

The president's move is notable for two reasons. For one, Obama rarely invokes his recess appointment authority, compared to past presidents. Until now, he has made 28 recess appointments. By contrast, former President George W. Bush made more than 170 during his presidency and former President Bill Clinton made almost 140. Secondly, and more importantly, Obama is making a recess appointment when the Senate isn't technically in recess -- a risky step that could spark a court challenge.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer made the case that it is fully within the president's right to make recess appointments when Republicans are relying on "a gimmick" to prevent the Senate from going into recess:

"Here are the facts: The Constitution gives the President the authority to make temporary recess appointments to fill vacant positions when the Senate is in recess, a power all recent Presidents have exercised. The Senate has effectively been in recess for weeks, and is expected to remain in recess for weeks. In an overt attempt to prevent the President from exercising his authority during this period, Republican Senators insisted on using a gimmick called 'pro forma' sessions, which are sessions during which no Senate business is conducted and instead one or two Senators simply gavel in and out of session in a matter of seconds. But gimmicks do not override the President's constitutional authority to make appointments to keep the government running. Legal experts agree. In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham 'pro forma' sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power," Pfeiffer wrote on the White House Blog.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...id10|htmlws-main-bb|dl5|sec1_lnk3&pLid=124907

Good news indeed. Partisan political snipping aside. Rich Cordray is a very good man with an extremely impressive curriculum vitae and he's from Grove City, Ohio a town I used to live in. Rich comes from a working class family. Earned honors at MSU, attended Oxford and graduated from University of Chicago Law School. Obama couldn't have appointed a better man for the job.

 

[Guns Guns Guns]

Why doesn't the right think Americans deserve to be protected from predatory criminals?

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Why doesn't the right think Americans deserve to be protected from predatory criminals?

Becasue some clown for BoA might not get his bonus.

 

[Taichiliberal]

Obama's contempt for the Constitution


How ironic that our president who once was a professor of the Constitution should have such a cavalier approach to that document as he is placing his nominee, Richard Cordray as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as three people to the NLRB, through a supposed recess appointment. Previously, when Bush did this with John Bolton to the United Nations, Senator Obama was appalled, calling Bolton "damaged goods." Harry Reid was similarly angry,

‘An end run around the Senate and the Constitution.’ “I will keep the Senate in pro forma session to block the president from doing an end run around the Senate and the Constitution with his controversial nominations.”

​

However, the Congress was in recess at that time so, even as Obama recognized at the time, this was within the President's constitutional powers. That is why Reid then adopted the tactic of not going out of session in order to block Bush from any more recess appointments.

Now Obama has done an even bigger end-run around the Constitution since the Congress is not in recess. John Steele Gordon explains how the House blocked this from happening.

The Constitution requires that neither house of Congress can recess for more than three days without the consent of the other house. The House of Representatives has not given that consent and has been holding pro forma sessions every three days, forcing the Senate to do likewise. When Democrats controlled the Senate in the last two years of the Bush administration, they held these pro forma sessions during recesses precisely to prevent President Bush from using the recess appointment power, which he didn’t.

​

And according to Clinton's Justice Department, these three days are enough to determine that the Congress is indeed in session.

In 1993, however, a Department of Justice brief implied that the President may make a recess appointment during a recess of more than three days. In doing so, the brief linked the minimum recess length with Article I, Section 5, clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution. This “Adjournments Clause” provides that “Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days ….”Arguing that the recess during which the appointment at issue in the case was made was of sufficient length, the brief stated: “If the recess here at issue were of three days or less, a closer question would be presented. The Constitution restricts the Senate’’s ability to adjourn its session for more than three days without obtaining the consent of the House of Representatives. … It might be argued that this means that the Framers did not consider one, two and three day recesses to be constitutionally significant. …Apart from the three-day requirement noted above, the Constitution provides no basis for limiting the recess to a specific number of days. Whatever number of days is deemed required, that number would of necessity be completely arbitrary.”

​

Remember that this recess appointment provision was put in the Constitution in the 18th century when it was envisioned that Congress would be part-time and out of session much of the year. In those days before mass communication and quick transportation, the Founders thought that we needed a way for the President to put people into place when Congress was back home and couldn't be expected back for a long time. It was certainly never envisioned that three days would be a long enough break to assert that Congress, without having formally going into recess, could be asserted to be in recess unilaterally by the President. That would be a total violation of the separation of powers, the sort of thing that Democrats were always warning about George W. Bush, but now seem not to worry about Obama doing.

In fact, the lawyers who advised President Bush on recess appointments wrote that the Senate cannot use sham 'pro forma' sessions to prevent the President from exercising a constitutional power," Pfeiffer wrote on the White House Blog.



And let's remember that the SHRUB had the second highest rate of recess appointments in the history of such appointments...171...second only to Ronnie Raygun. Obama has had 28 thus far.


And since Obama's appointment was timed in between said pro-forma sessions, the GOP hasn't a leg to stand on. But don't take my word for it:

During the middle of the first session of the 112th Congress, a new related practice appeared to
emerge. On May 25, 2011, in a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, 20 Senators urged
him “to refuse to pass any resolution to allow the Senate to recess or adjourn for more than three
days for the remainder of the president’s term.”31 The letter stated that “President Obama has used
recess appointments to fill powerful positions with individuals whose views are so outside the
mainstream that they cannot be confirmed by the Senate of the United States,” and it referred to
the Senate practices of 2007 as “a successful attempt to thwart President Bush’s recess
appointment powers.” The request of the Senators appeared intended to similarly block President
Obama from using the recess appointment power.
In a June 15, 2011 letter to the Speaker of the House, the House majority leader, and the House
majority whip, 78 Representatives requested that “all appropriate measures be taken to prevent
any and all recess appointments by preventing the Senate from officially recessing for the
remainder of the 112th Congress.”32
As of December 8, 2011, no concurrent resolution of adjournment had been introduced in either
chamber since May 12, 2011. During periods of extended absence, the Senate has used pro forma
sessions to avoid recesses of more than three days.33
As of December 8, 2011, President Obama had not made any recess appointments during one of
the periods of extended Senate absence during which pro forma sessions have been held.


http://www.google.com/search?q=Bush+recess+appointments&hl=en&gbv=2


If Fox told Webbie to jump, he'd say "how high?"