quote:

Originally posted by Dr Chango:
Off-topic spam.

Deceive, distort and divert.

quote:

recess-appointed

quote:

So once again, Obama is making it up as he goes along.

quote:

The Justice Department is defending the legality of President Barack Obama's recent recess appointment of a national consumer watchdog and other officials from criticism by Republicans.

The department released a 23-page legal opinion Thursday summarizing the advice it gave the White House before the Jan. 4 appointments. Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz wrote that the president has authority to make such appointments during a congressional recess of the current length. Seitz argued the Senate's periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is conducted have not enabled the chamber to advise and consent to regular nominations, as it is empowered to do under the Constitution.
...

Seitz heads the department's Office of Legal Counsel, which is empowered to provide binding legal opinions to the executive branch.

Her new memo cites a Justice Department legal opinion from President George W. Bush's Republican administration in justifying Obama's recent appointments. The Bush administration opinion from 2004 says that a recess during a session of the Senate can meet constitutional requirements for permitting the president to make recess appointments as long as the recess is of sufficient length. The current recess is for 20 days. Seitz noted that the last five presidents have made recess appointments during recesses of 14 days or less.

quote:

[n]either House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days.

quote:

He asked for advice from the Justice Department BEFORE he acted, and it said his appointments would be constitutional.

quote:

This looks very much like someone trying to fluff out an opinion to make the boss look good, rather than independent legal analysis — perhaps yet another example of the politicization of the DoJ we have seen under Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

So did the DoJ have a position on this question prior to six days ago? Actually, they did, Gerstein reports, and it was written by no less a legal authority than the newest member of the Supreme Court — nominated by Obama himself:

Another awkward fact acknowledged in Seitz’s opinion is that less than two years ago the Justice Department sent the Supreme Court a letter-style brief noting that “the Senate may act to foreclose [recess appointments] by declining to recess for more than two or three days at a time over a lengthy period.”
Seitz insisted that the letter, from then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan, didn’t directly address the situation Obama faced earlier this month.
...
if the Supreme Court takes this up, Kagan will have no choice but to recuse herself from the case.

[So do we] accept the definition of a recess from Obama’s DoJ circa 2010 or Obama’s DoJ circa 2012?