We should make one comment here...this method of “not being in session” during the Xmas period....was invented by Harry Reid toward the last year or two of Bush’s period. Basically...some Senator would walk into the Senate...state some business, open a session, and do a carry-over till tomorrow, and the next day...etc. It was a fake session, but Bush and his legal team figured that it’d be legit enough for the court (he was right).
So what Harry Reid invented....worked, and sadly, it also affected President Obama.
Here’s the final piece of this mess...the people appointed....made decisions that affected people’s lives. You can figure at least 10k cases that will be brought over the next year that center back over this appointment issue. Lawyers stand to make at least $500 million in legal costs (my humble belief)....all because of what Harry Reid started.
Yep. He thought it was clever. Too clever by half. "Senate in session" was a sham. Pretty funny that Obama flew into the honey pot.
I do think the DC Circuit got it right, "recess appointment" was meant to be a narrow application. That is has come into so much use is a measure of the Senate's dysfunction.
-- Lawyers stand to make at least $500 million in legal costs (my humble belief)....all because of what Harry Reid started. --
Obama could have kept the chain from breaking too, by not making those NLRB appointments. I do agree, Reid's step is part of that chain, and had he not started the practice of sham sessions for the purpose of preventing recess appointments, this case would never have been heard. The Democrats initiate stretching the rules to (and sometime past) the breaking point. It's unusual for them to become ensnared in their own trap.