Archive

Posts Tagged ‘recess appointment’
December 6th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
DC Judge Says Constitution Trumps Precedent

The Washington Times captures a revealing back-and-forth between an Obama Justice Department lawyer and a conservative D.C. Circuit appeals judge over whether the text of the Constitution or court precedent should decide when the President can make recess appointments:

“Once you remove yourself from the principles set forth in the Constitution — inter-session versus intra-session — you are adrift,” said Judge Thomas B. Griffith.

He was joined in his pointed questioning by Chief Judge David B. Sentelle, who said the clause in the Constitution giving presidents recess appointment powers refers to “the recess,” which he said suggests the one at the end of each year, not the breaks Congress regularly takes for holidays, weekends or other reasons.

If the court were to rule that way, it would upset the balance that has been maintained over decades, and would conflict with another appeals court’s precedent — though that didn’t bother Judge Sentelle.

“Forget about a century of precedent — go back to the Constitution,” he told Beth Brinkmann, the Justice Department lawyer who argued the case for the Obama administration.

She warned that going that route would change the system of checks and balances fundamentally.

Sentelle sounds like my kind of judge.  Let’s hope this is the beginning of a trend.

January 13th, 2012 at 8:56 am
Podcast: Battle Brews over “Recess” Appointments
Posted by Print

In an interview with CFIF, Fox News contributor Cherylyn Harley LeBon, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network and president and CEO of KLAR Strategies, discusses President Obama’s constitutionally suspect decision to make “recess” appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and National Labor Relations Board when the Senate was in pro forma session.

Listen to the interview here.

January 5th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Ramirez Cartoon: The Imperial President
Posted by Print

Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

July 7th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Health Care Rationing Proponent Gets Recess Appointment to Head Up Medicare

The Associated Press reports:

Bypassing Republicans eager to grill an administration official over the new health care law, President Barack Obama is planning to appoint the head of Medicare and Medicaid without Senate hearings.

“Obama intends to use a so-called recess appointment to put Dr. Donald Berwick in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a White House official said Tuesday night.”

As Freedom Line readers are aware, Dr. Berwick is a self-proclaimed health care rationing enthusiast who openly supports wealth redistribution schemes and a completely government-run single payer health care system. 

Indeed, in an interview just last year Berwick said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”  And in 2002, Dr. Berwick wrote, “most people who have serious pain do not need advanced methods – they just need the morphine and counseling that have been available for centuries.”

Seniors beware.  This is the guy who is now in charge of your health care.

March 27th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Obama Tempting GOP to Shut Down the Government

The question whether President Barack Obama would make recess appointments over Republican objections has now been answered.

So, who needs Congress?  With President Obama issuing an executive order purporting to make law, and filling administrative vacancies through recess appointments, is there really a need for the legislative branch?  After a month where it became evident that the Obama Administration sees Congress as a bifurcated procedural process, it won’t be too surprising if after Republicans gain a majority the White House refuses to acknowledge the legislature’s presence.  If that happens, we may be headed for a government shut-down early next year when the GOP turns off the financial spigot.

Stay tuned.