US Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict ruled Obama recess appointments illegal.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140626/us-supreme-court-recess-appointment-801860b033.html
It’s not often an American President gets that sort of slap down,let’s hope more is on the way.
Actually, it’s much worse. Listened to Mark Levin’s broadcast 3 hours ago.
9 to 0 that the original was unconstitutional.
5-4 that ANY recess is now precedent.
Levin’s short synopsis as to why we’ve been screwed:
The constitution says Prez can make appointments during THE recess.
SCOTUS just revised it to mean during A recess. The activists on SCOTUS just effectively eliminated that check and balance!
I don’t know,as I read it the original intent of recess appointments was in the event someone died during a recess.The power has been abused by several administrations and both parties.
What the SCOTUS just said was “with a compliant Congress” if the Congress is compliant with the executive then there won’t be any need for a recess appointment in the first place,unless somebody actually drops dead and needs replacing soon.
They did say that pro forma sessions are perfectly legit,so if either house of Congress doesn’t agree to a recess by default there can be no recess appointment.
As the law stood,Obama was walking all over it and I have no doubt in my mind that the next president would do the same.Obama and Bush before used a tiny loophole in the Constitution and made it ten miles wide,I think the SCOTUS just tightened it up a bit IMHO.
I like you view Darin. Since Levin was involved in this case as an adviser to the plaintives’s lawyers, I presume he or his staff more thoroughly read it than any of us.
I’ve now got the podcast downloaded. So I’m gonna transcribe some of Levin’s pertinent remarks so as to add to what I wrote above. That should give us something more precise to chew on.
Here’s Levin’s actual words when he summed up at the top of the 2nd hour.
…youR gonna have.
…couldn’t leave IT at just that.
…went on AND rewrote.
sigh
It’s a difficult proposition,on the one hand the POTUS was already abusing the very limited and very narrow power granted to him by the Constitution.The Framers never intended this current mess,it was simply if some one died or was impaired while congress wasn’t in town.Through the Lens of time,it was written when we didn’t have Jets,Trains or even Automobiles.It could take months back then for congress to be back in session to go through the whole confirmation process.In typical fashion the POTUS took advantage of what I see as a logistics clause and made it into an imperial one.
On the other hand it is a power the framers intended for him to have.If we look at the current congress and their calender for 2014, I don’t think limiting the power to just “the” 10 day recess would have worked.The answer could be that the how and when of recesses has changed since 1789 as well.Back then they all traveled to the Capitol,came to session,did the peoples business for a few months and then recessed and returned home for the rest of the year leaving the President,VP and their cabinets home alone so to speak.
They did leave standing the permission clause though,so if either house or senate disagrees on a recess there won’t be one. Enter the current pro forma sessions where they Gavel in and gavel out ten minutes later every three days meeting the requirement of not being on an official recess.
I doubt we have heard the last of this and later down the road it will end up in front of SCOTUS again.Maybe by that time the lower courts will have figured out a better solution.
All that said,I still say every SCOTUS ruling since 1830 is null and void since SCOTUS is operating under powers not granted it by the COTUS.
I forget who it was said it,but the POTUS in one respect behaves like a small boy.Always testing his limits to see what he can get away with and occasionally needing a good smacking to set him straight.Fits Obama precisely to a Tee I would say.
“POTUS in one respect behaves like a small boy.” Replace that with spoilt brat and the Tee fits all too well. How long before some Big Bertha comes along and hooks it into a water hazard?
Agreed,his recess appointments are a minor offense though compared to the IRS,Benghazi,VA,ACA and NDAA scandals and power grabs,plus the hundred or so I can’t remember.Plus there is still that birth certificate thing.
The “overload” theory that came out a few weeks ago I think might be correct.He and his ilk have done so many things that are at minimum questionable to down right illegal the exposure of all of them is overloading the system.We need an army of Trey Gowdys to chase down all the corrupt angles and scams this administration has got.
What penalties are available (and what mechanism to impose them) when a President breaks the law?
Don’t know,we’ve never really had the chance to find out.Clinton was impeached,but not all the way and even if he had been the worst that could have happened to him would be removal from office,maybe forfeiting his pension.
Once again the U.S. Supreme Court proves that nine people pulled at random out of the telephone book would be better, as they would PERHAPS actually READ the constitution once or twice.
Yep, this is the same “wise” jurist club who determined that Obamacare is the law of the land and that a “Penumbra” in the 14th Amendment allowed a woman the “right” to murder her child.
@Darin & KG: The constitution maximum sanction for presidential felonies would be removal from office…At that point the U.S. Attorney could file federal criminal charges, which would be highly unlikely in the case of Obama, as Holder would continue as A.G. under Biden.
Another way Obama could dodge the bullet would be by pardoning himself and anyone else he deems before he leaves office.
Talk about a fool proof stay out of jail card
Yep!
Revolution is the only way – and this old soldier is praying for an American version of the English king killer General Oliver Cromwell and a five year long Commonwealth, where the constitution is suspended and enemies of the American People can be executed after a short courts martial.
The first trial would be, “The United States of America v. Barack H. Obama,”who would be charged with high treason.
Court appointed lawyers only.
No appeals granted.
Sentence to be carried out with 90 days.
Execution by military police firing squad.
90 days or 90 minutes?
One appeal allowed? To a panel comprised of the parents of Vets killed by the VA.