President Obama’s illegal non-recess appointments are unconstitutional and defy the process the Founding Fathers intended, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told a House committee Wednesday. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee invited a handful of constitutional law experts to discuss the four controversial appointments Obama made in January. Citing delays in the Senate, Obama installed Richard Cordray (pictured) as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Richard Griffin Jr., Sharon Block, and Terence F. Flynn as members of the National Labor Relations Board. Lee, a constitutional expert and scholar, …
Ed Whelan has a strong column in yesterday’s Washington Post on the Attorney General’s attempt to suppress an Office of Legal Counsel opinion concluding that the pending D.C. “voting rights” bill is unconstitutional. (We share that view.) This is not, as the Post had put it previously, a case of different parts of DOJ having different opinions, but an end-run around the Department’s usual clearance process: Now, it’s legitimate, if exceedingly rare, for an attorney general to contest OLC’s advice…. But there’s a right way to overrule OLC, and then …
Chalk up a big loss for constitutional rule of law, thanks to an Obama Administration sleight-of-hand reported on the front page of today’s Washington Post. When the Executive Branch needs legal advice, it goes to the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. OLC is like an in-house Supreme Court: it evaluates the constitutionality of pending legislation and issues binding opinions on the legality of different policy options. And like a court, OLC has a strong institutional memory and tradition; its legal opinions generally don’t change much from …
Tonight, The Heritage Foundation will host Judge Robert Bork as part of our Jospeh Story Distinguished Lecture Series. RSVP to the event here. The Center for Legal and Judicial Studies is honored to host Judge Robert Bork as the inaugural speaker of our aptly named Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture Series. The namesake of the series – the eminent jurist Joseph Story – became the youngest Associate Justice ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court when he was appointed by President Madison in 1812. Story made a significant mark …
