Archive | Recess Appointments

One theme of the amicus brief I helped write in Noel Canning was the need for a consistent treatment of text, history, and modern practice. If the executive branch wishes to argue that modern practice trumps the text and early history on questions 1 and 2 (“the recess” and “happen”), then it should be stuck […]

A while ago, I wrote a post about the grammar of the Recess Appointments Clause, which began: The Recess Appointments Clause, recall, says: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” […]

If you haven’t yet heard enough from me about Noel Canning and recess appointments — or if you want to actually hear me talk rather than just read me — I will be doing a teleforum for the American Bar Association on the case on tomorrow morning at 11:30 EST. (You could catch much of […]

Those who have been following the recess appointments litigation are probably aware of the extensive originalist arguments that the Recess Appointments Clause is limited to appointments that arise (“happen”) while the Senate is in recess, and that “recess” means that the Senate is not in session. Those arguments were made by University of San Diego […]

The third issue addressed in our amicus brief is the validity of the Senate’s pro forma sessions under the Recess Appointments Clause. To avoid the force of the historical definitions of “happen” and “recess,” one would need to argue that the more modern practice is what should be controlling. But under modern practice, we argue, […]

The second issue addressed in our amicus brief is what the Recess Appointments Clause means by “recess” and “session.” Our brief discusses the original meanings of these terms, as well as the structure, purpose, and history that clarify the meanings of those terms in context. Most importantly, we argue that the Senate cannot be in […]

The Recess Appointments Clause, recall, says: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” Several readers have asked about which verbs are modified by the phrase “during the Recess.” It has […]

Yesterday I posted the amicus brief that I and a group of constitutional law scholars filed in the Court’s recess appointments case, Noel Canning. Taking a page from Eugene, I thought I’d put break our argument out into three blog posts this week, for those who are curious but don’t want to read through the […]

One of my favorite historical documents about recess appointments is the Senate Judiciary Committee’s 1863 report on the meaning of the Clause. (The document is here; a discussion by Michael Stern is here.) As we note in our brief, in late 1862, Lincoln’s Attorney General, Bates, issued an opinion justifying an expansive interpretation of the […]

Yesterday, Michael McConnell and I filed an amicus brief in NLRB v. Noel Canning (the Supreme Court’s recess appointments case) on behalf of ourselves and a group of other constitutional law scholars, including co-conspirators Dale Carpenter, Eugene Kontorovich, and Nick Rosenkranz, as well as Nathan Chapman, Samuel Bray, John Eastman, Richard Epstein, Michael Greve, Joshua […]

Although most of the coverage of the Senate Rules change has concerned the immediate effect on the composition of the D.C. Circuit, it occurs to me that it is also relevant to NLRB v. Noel Canning.  Many recess appointments in recent years were of nominees who enjoyed majority support, but a Senate minority prevented a […]

Late this afternoon, a divided panel panel of the Fourth Circuit invalidated President Obama’s January 2012 recess appointment of three NLRB members. People who have remarked on the fact that only judges appointed by Republican presidents have so far voted to invalidate these appointments, while judges appointed by Democrats have voted to uphold them, will […]