Federal Court in N.Y. Won't Rule on Obama Recess Appointments - WSJ.com)
March 28, 2012A federal judge in New York declined to rule on whether President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board violate the U.S. Constitution, leaving the widely debated question unresolved for now. The decision marked the second time a court has declined to rule on the matter.
The first legal challenge to the appointments was made in January. The judge overseeing that case, which challenged an NLRB regulation that was approved last year before the recess appointments, also declined to rule on the constitutionality question. That judge said the regulation was created by a quorum of "undisputedly" authorized board members well before the recess appointments were announced. Several other cases are pending that challenge the recess appointments, though it's unclear when and if those will be decided.
My question: by what authority did the judge “decline” to rule? Is that like nobama deciding to not support DOMA?