President Obama Makes Unconstitutional and Illegal Appointments
President Obama continues his assault on the “irrelevant” Constitution by bypassing Congress and violating current law in the process of making executive branch appointments. But the Supreme Court will be hearing a case in November on this very issue.
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution provides for the participation of the Senate in the appointment process of “officers of the United States” nominated by the president. Specifically, the Senate is to give its “advice and consent.”
This process has proven too slow in practice, so Congress has enacted legislation permitting the president to appoint temporary officeholders (typically limited to a maximum period of service of 210 days) without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate.
Given that Congress appreciates that presidents endowed with such exceptional power would be prone to abuse it, another limitation has been added to...
