#SCOTUS: Constitutional scholar President overstepped on recess appointments
A HUGE victory for limiting executive powers – via Fox News:
The Supreme Court delivered a blow Thursday to President Obama, ruling that he went too far in making recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
In a unanimous decision, the high court sided with Senate Republicans and limited the president’s power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments. It was the first-ever Supreme Court test involving the long-standing practice of presidents naming appointees when the Senate is on break.
In this case, Obama had argued that the Senate was on an extended holiday break when he filled slots at the NLRB in 2012. He argued the brief sessions it held every three days were a sham that was intended to prevent him from filling the seats.
The justices rejected that argument, though, declaring the Senate was not actually in a formal recess when Obama acted during that three-day window.
Justice Stephen Breyer said in his majority opinion that a congressional break has to last at least 10 days to be considered a recess under the Constitution.
“Three days is too short a time to bring a recess within the scope of the Clause. Thus we conclude that the President lacked the power to make the recess appointments here at issue,” Breyer wrote.
At the same time, the court upheld the general authority of the president to make recess appointments.
This one, like the Citizens United ruling, is gonna sting “the smartest administration evah!!” quite a bit. Good.
In other good news related to SCOTUS: Justices strike down protest buffer zones around Massachusetts abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood, of course, is not pleased. What a shame.