Tornado Alley (PROG)

[JimLur]

Supreme Court: Obama Violated Constitution With Appointee Who Bypassed Senate Confirmation [Video]

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution by maintaining former acting National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Lafe Solomon after the Senate refused to vote on his nomination.

Obama named Solomon acting general counsel of the NLRB in June 2010 after Ronald Meisburg’s resignation the same month. Six months later, in Jan. 2011, Solomon was nominated to serve as the agency’s permanent general counsel.

However, the Senate refused to vote on Solomon’s nomination, leaving him as both the acting and nominated general counsel of the NLRB for three years until Richard Griffin’s confirmation in the fall of 2013.

The Supreme Court ruled Solomon’s status as both acting and nominated general counsel for the majority of his three-year tenure violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, which restrains the president’s appointment power.

The FVRA prohibits an individual from serving as both the acting officer and permanent nominee of a position which requires Senate confirmation.

Chief Justice John Roberts ruled in the 6-2 decision that the appointment was an “end-run around” the Constitution.

“We cannot cast aside the separation of powers and the Appointments Clause’s important check on executive power for the sake of administrative convenience or efficiency,” Roberts wrote in the ruling opinion.

“The Judicial Branch must be most vigilant in guarding the separation between the political powers precisely when those powers collude to avoid the structural constraints of our Constitution,” the ruling continues.

Tuesday’s ruling follows a similar case five years ago, when the court ruled unanimously that Obama unconstitutionally recess-appointed two NLRB board members while the Senate was still in session.

That decision opened the door for employers and unions to challenge the more than 1,000 decisions issued by the NLRB during those board members’ time at the agency

. Dozens of cases were reheard by the NLRB as a result.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/supreme-court-rules-obama-violated-constitution-allowing-labor-appointee-serve-without-senate-confirmation/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=WJConservativeBrief&utm_content=2017-03-22