Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.In the third of six major Supreme Court decisions expected to come down this week, the Court has ruled to limit a President’s appointment power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments.
In a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court justices ruled that the appointments to the National Labor Relations Board President Barack Obama made without Senate confirmation in 2012 with were illegal. The appointments were made while the Senate was in recess, which, according to the Constitution, under the Recess Appointments Clause, gives the president to power to make temporary appointments. However, the Court found that the Senate wasn’t actually in a formal recess when the Presidential appointments were made, thus Obama’s actions were unconstitutional and illegal.
“We conclude that the Recess Appointments Clause does not give the President the constitutional authority to make the appointments here at issue,” the Justices write.
Obama argued that his appointments were made while the Senate was “on an extended holiday break and that the brief sessions it held every three days were a sham that was intended to prevent him from filling seats on the NLRB,” the Post reports. Even if that was the case, the Supreme still decided that what Obama did was illegal.
The impact of the Court’s ruling, the Post says, “may be keenly felt by the White House next year if Republicans capture control of the Senate in the November election.”
You can read the full ruling from the Supreme Court below:
