This is why we needed REAL filibuster reform!
by Thom Hartmann
Janaury 29, 2013
The Obama administration is considering its next move, after a panel of three Republican-appointed judges on a DC Circuit Court ruled last week, that President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were unconstitutional. The court ruled that the president can only make a recess appointment when the Senate is officially in recess - which only happens once a year - after the Senate finishes the first half of its session.
That decision directly contradicted a 2004 federal appeals court ruling - and 190 years of recess appointments by both Republican, and Democratic, presidents. But Corporate America is applauding the decision - and arguing that decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, since the recess appointments, should be null and void.
According to court rules, the Obama Justice Department still has 45 days to appeal the ruling to a larger court of appeals - plus another 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court. Of course - none of this would have been an issue had Senate Republicans not filibustered the President's nominees - forcing him to make recess appointments in the first place.
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