...Court Decision Would Have Invalidated Hundreds Of Recess Appointments From Reagan To Obama

[ProSense]

Federal Appeals Court Decision Would Have Invalidated Hundreds Of Recess Appointments From Reagan To Obama

Brian Beutler

<...>

The Congressional Research Service turned back the clock (PDF) to the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s first term and dug up all the recess appointments they could find in the ensuing 32 years. Hundreds of recess appointments — by Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama — would have been unlawful exercises of the recess appointment power had the new appeals court decision been in effect at the time, the CRS found in a memo dated Monday and released by Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, who requested the research.

The decision in January by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Noel Canning v. NLRB was focused on the three recess appointments that President Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012. The court held that none of the three board members was properly appointed, which voided the board’s decision in the case under review by the court. The ruling has thrown a year’s worth of NLRB decisions into question. It has also by extension cast doubt on the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been headed up by a recess appointee, Richard Cordray, whose appointment also did not satisfy the court’s standards.

<...>

The Congressional Research Service found a total of 329 intrasession recess appointments — appointments that occurred when the Senate adjourned in the middle of a session — since 1981. By the terms of Noel Canning v. NLRB, all of those appointments would have been invalid.

There were another 323 so-called intersession recess appointments — appointments that occurred between Senate sessions — but the CRS was unable to determine how many of those would also have run afoul of the circuit court’s opinion because it lacked sufficient data to determine whether those vacancies arose during the same recess. “Obtaining the precise dates on which each vacancy began can be difficult; therefore, at this time, CRS is unable to determine which of the intersession recess appointments listed in this memorandum would have been precluded under the court’s ruling,” according to the memo.

- more -

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/federal-court-would-have-invalidated-hundreds-of-recess-appointments.php

CRS: The Noel Canning Decision and Recess Appointments Made from 1981-2013
http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/sites/democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/files/documents/112/pdf/Recess%20Appointments%201981-2013.pdf

Corporate Lobby Tells Businesses To Shift Cases To GOP-Friendly Court
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022315659

[madrchsod]

1. this will come back to bite the republicans asses