Free Republic

Well, today's the day we have to worry if the wobbly US Supreme Court will uphold what should seem obviously sensible rulings from three lower courts: that the Obama Administration had no business whatsoever claiming short-term congressional breaks to be 'in recess' and then exploiting them to ram-through dubious 'recess appointments'. When questioned, the Obama WH's only response has been 'sue me', which soon became a reality. Since then, a U.S. appeals court in DC -and two others- said that indeed President Obama had violated the Constitution when he used the recess-appointment power to fill seats on the National Labor...

Last week, our two children started back to school. The prep work included buying new backpacks, books and school supplies, along with a few new clothes. Binders were labeled and organized, new textbooks were bought and thumbed through, and, for our daughter Maggie, the first day's outfit was carefully thought through and laid out the night before. Schedules were printed and reviewed. They were ready to get back to work. They were ready for a new year, a fresh start. As they walked out our door the first morning, my husband Jimmy and I reminded them that first impressions matter...

Accountable Congress has done amazing work chronicling all the town halls and opportunities to reach out to members of Congress over August. Few groups have performed as well as them in documenting activities. They should serve as a model for every other group out there in getting this data out to Americans. It is very clear that members of Congress, regardless of party, do not want you to know where they will be this August. Well, because of Accountable Congress and groups like FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, we can tell you. Over the next several weeks I’m going to...

RICHMOND, Va. – A third federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that President Obama´s recess appointments of three National Labor Relations Board members was unconstitutional. A divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals joined federal appeals courts in the District of Columbia and Philadelphia in ruling that the Senate wasn´t really in recess when Obama filled the vacancies during an extended holiday break in January 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the D.C. case. However, the legal dispute may have been resolved politically. Obama on Tuesday nominated two new NLRB appointees to replace those

Democrats hammered Republicans for voting to go into recess Friday and accused them of willfully avoiding coming up with a plan to avert the sequester. “The Democrats tried to stop the Republicans from leaving, but 220 Republicans voted to adjourn, that means we have four legislative days left to avoid the across the board cuts,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “They manufacture a crisis and then instead of trying to avert that crisis they go on a nine day recess. Why?" **SNIP** “The Republicans are poised to shut down government, the Republicans are poised to let sequestration go forward,...

President Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board. The unanimous decision is an embarrassing setback for the president, who made the appointments after Senate Republicans spent months blocking his choices for an agency they contended was biased in favor of unions. The ruling also throws into question Obama's recess...

A three judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today adopted arguments advanced by Landmark Legal Foundation to overturn appointments made by President Obama to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Landmark argued in its amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief that the President's use of the Constitution's "recess appointments" clause violated the restrictions placed by the Constitution on that power.

What does it mean for the Senate to be in recess? Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals was challenged to figure that out. This stems from President Obama bypassing the Senate in appointing three nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The Wall Street Journal sets it up: [I]n January Mr. Obama named three new members of the National Labor Relations Board along with Richard Cordray as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when the Senate wasn't in recess. While Congress was conducting pro forma sessions, Mr. Obama pulled this end run around the Senate's advice...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday questioned not only President Obama’s controversial January recess appointments but the entire system of such appointments, using oral arguments in a case to cast doubt on whether presidential powers can ever be exercised unless Congress has adjourned for good.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday questioned not only President Obama’s controversial January recess appointments but the entire system of such appointments, using oral arguments in a case to cast doubt on whether presidential powers can ever be exercised unless Congress has adjourned for good. ...snip... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the lead plaintiff from Senate Republicans, attended the oral argument.

In his Saturday radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama excoriated House Republicans for commencing their scheduled recess at a time when there were numerous bills to be voted on that allegedly would have buttressed the economy. “Last week, without much fanfare, members of the House of Representatives banged a gavel, turned out the lights and rushed home, declaring their work finished for now,” Obama began. “If that frustrates you, it should, because their work isn’t finished. “When they skipped town, members of Congress left a whole bunch of proposals sitting on the table. These ideas have been around for...

CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is touting the "quality" medical care it provides for 15,000 illegal aliens who are housed at 21 detention facilities throughout the nation. "A detainee's health care begins the moment they walk through the facility's doors," said Dr. Jon Krohmer, assistant director for ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC). "Within the first 12 hours of their admission, all detainees undergo a preliminary health screening, which includes an evaluation of the individual's medical, dental and mental health status; and within the next 14 days, a more detailed physical examination takes place." Because so many...

The House and Senate left for a two-week break that, for the first time in a year, will not be punctuated by occasional pro forma sessions. Instead, both chambers passed an adjournment resolution this week, granting themselves an actual recess until they both return on Monday, April 16. .. Despite this battle, Republicans appeared to be put at ease enough to allow an official recess this Easter, in light of a deal that Senate leaders agreed to with the White House. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that as a result of these discussions, there would be "no...

Republicans may still be incensed about Richard Cordray’s recess appointment to the Consumer Financial Protection Board, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be taking it out on other Obama nominees. On Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Cathy Ann Bencivengo as a U.S. District Court judge, supporting her 90 to 6. It was the first Senate confirmation vote since President Obama appointed Cordray, and it bodes well for other nominees waiting in the wings. The few Republicans who voted against Bencivengo’s nomination made it clear that they wanted to send Obama a message about the Cordray appointment, which they...

Welcome news on the merits, but I doubt Obama cares much. If he wins, then the Cordray and NLRB appointments are vindicated constitutionally, which will give him political cover to be even bolder with his executive power grabs. If he loses, then instead of whining endlessly on the campaign trail this year about the conservative “do-nothing Congress” (only half of which is controlled by conservatives, of course), he can whine about the conservative “do-nothing Congress” and the conservative courts that are allegedly rubber-stamping their obstructionism. All the more reason to re-elect him and let him appoint more judges. Which is...

Wicker to boycott Cordray hearing to protest Obama 'recess' appointmentsBy Pete Kasperowicz - 01/26/12 03:45 PM ET Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Thursday afternoon said he would boycott a planned hearing next week in which Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray will testify, as a way of protesting Cordray's recess appointment to that post when the Senate was not in recess. "Let me be explicitly clear," Wicker said on the Senate floor. "Richard Cordray is not the duly constituted director of the CFPB. His purported recess appointment does not comply with the Constitution, and is in fact a...

President Barack Obama's appointments to two key agencies during the Senate's year-end break ensures that GOP senators will return to work Monday in an angry and fighting mood. Less clear is what those furious Republicans will do to retaliate against Obama's "bring it on" end run around the Senate's role in confirming nominees to major jobs. While Republicans contemplate their next step, recess appointee Richard Cordray is running a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board, with three temporary members, is now at full strength with a Democratic majority. Obama left more than70 other nominees in...

A right-to-work organization is taking the White House to court over the president’s controversial decision to install three new members on the National Board Relations board without Senate approval. The legal challenge came after the three new members approved a legal response in an existing lawsuit. The plaintiffs asked the judge on Friday to rule that their participation is invalid because President Barack Obama did not have the authority to appoint them. “We asked [the judge] to consider the question of whether they are constitutionally seated,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. Without legitimate appointments,...

GOP: Could Obama make a recess appointment overnight or on weekend?By Pete Kasperowicz - 01/06/12 03:01 PM ET Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is asking the Obama administration whether recess appointments overnight and on the weekend are possible after the president's decision this week to appoint four federal officials despite pro forma sessions by Congress. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Grassley and seven other Republican senators on Friday pressed the Obama administration for more details about its decision to make the controversial recess appointments. Grassley's letter said the White House broke with 90 years of precedent on Wednesday...

My Sunday column addressed the Obama “recess appointments.” I use quotes for the term, because the Senate was not in recess, according to its own rules. The New York Times editorialized in favor of the president’s move, while it denounced the GOP’s “use any and all tactics to thwart the bureau and the Dodd-Frank reform law that created it.” Be it noted, these GOP tactics were instituted under Democrat Harry’s Reid’s leadership in an announced effort to thwart any recess appointments under George W. Bush.Here is a 2008 editorial in which The New York Times endorsed those very same tactics,...