Calling the president’s illegal non-recess appointments “an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, dismissed a Justice Department memo on Thursday that sought to lend retroactive constitutional weight to the president’s move. Grassley …
The Obama Administration’s 23-page Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion rationalizing illegal appointments the President made last week, released this morning, falls far short of its intended goal. The opinion makes claims that are demonstrably false and is at times, frankly, embarrassing. Apart from failing to prove that President Obama’s …
Last week, President Barack Obama took the latest step on his road toward an arrogant, new authoritarianism with four illegal appointments that entirely trampled on the Constitution’s requirements. More troubling still, the President chose to shred the Constitution all in the name of serving his Big Labor agenda while killing …
President Obama’s stunning appointments of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and of three more bureaucrats to the National Labor Relations Board has been described by many observers as a serious blow to the Constitution and the separation of powers. In addition to the strong Constitutional argument against …
President Obama thinks he merely stretched his powers under the Constitution in making so-called recess appointments for three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III and counsel Todd Gaziano made clear in …
Defenders of President Obama’s unprecedented “recess” appointments of Richard Cordray to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three members to the National Labor Relations Board argue that the Constitution is vague on when Congress is in session and that the President can therefore take a “functionalist” approach that considers …
Standing behind a podium on a stage just outside Cleveland, President Barack Obama delivered a speech yesterday that will reverberate throughout history. No, its lasting impact will not come because of its soaring rhetoric. Instead, it will make its mark because it was at that moment on a Wednesday afternoon …
The White House announced today that President Barack Obama plans to attempt a “recess appointment” of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in addition to three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board — and that’s despite the fact that Congress is not officially in recess, as required …
The White House announced Wednesday that President Obama would recess-appoint Richard Cordray as chairman of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board. There’s just one problem: The U.S. Senate is not in recess. The decision to appoint these officials nonetheless appears to …
By circumventing the lawful confirmation process, President Obama’s attempted “recess appointment” today of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) demonstrates the very unaccountability that pervades the agency and requires reform. Although operational now, the CFPB has been largely confined to enforcing existing regulations, without authority to …
