Marathon Pundit: Another Obama defeat: One more Appeals court rules against NLRB recess appointments

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Another Obama defeat: One more Appeals court rules against NLRB recess appointments

The Obama White House suffered another defeat today, as Politico tells us.

A second appeals court has joined the D.C. Circuit in ruling that President Barack Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional, concluding that some board actions taken in the wake of those appointments were also invalid.

The issue has far-reaching implications for both the NLRB and other boards, including Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been a frequent target of conservatives and whose director was a recess appointment.

The 2-1 decision Thursday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (posted here) found that the presidential recess appointment power is limited to breaks between sessions of Congress, not breaks within sessions or other adjournments during which the Senate might meet in pro forma sessions. The reasoning mirrors that in a ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court in January.

The 3rd Circuit case centered on decisions the NLRB made on the authority of three members including Craig Becker, who was appointed by the president on March 27, 2010, while the Senate was adjourned for two weeks.

The Workforce Fairness Institute issued a response on the decision.

The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit finding President Obama's "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unconstitutional. The ruling comes on the heels of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:

"A second appeals court has now found the President’s so-called recess appointments to be unconstitutional. The judicial branch is confirming what everyone outside the Obama Administration has known all along, the Senate was not in recess when the President made his appointments; therefore, they are invalid, the Board’s actions illegitimate and the federal agency does not have a legal quorum,” said Fred Wszolek, a spokesperson for the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI). "The time has come for President Obama to respect co-equal branches of government as well as the U.S. Constitution, and end the giveaways to the Big Labor bosses who bankrolled his political campaigns."