From the WashingtonTimes.com:
In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama’s controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess.
The three-judge panel’s ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments he made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and hence the five-person board did not have a quorum to operate.
But the ruling has even broader constitutional significance, with the judges arguing that the president’s recess appointment powers don’t apply to “intra-session” appointments — those made when Congress has left town for a few days or weeks. They said Mr. Obama erred when he said he could claim the power to determine when he could make appointments.
“Allowing the president to define the scope of his own appointments power would eviscerate the Constitution’s separation of powers,” the judges said in their opinion.
It is in fact an unprecedented act. Obama sat on a controversial set of appointments waiting for the Christmas recess. Then Obama unilaterally determined when the Senate could be in recess and thusly gutted the Constitution’s checks and balances.
It will, of course, be appealed as rapidly as possible. Because it calls into question a year’s worth of similar appointments. We have a system of powers already in place by the appointment process so that they are politically accountable. This could be heard as quickly as June, or kicked to the side until fall.
I am shocked — shocked, I tell you — that a federal court had the temerity to stand in public disagreement with the Autarchist-in-Chief.
Gentlemen of that court: your taxes are so going to get audited this year.
BZ
