Eight Republican Senators have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him whether the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issed an opinion on whether four recess appointments made by President Obama when the Senate was conducting pro-forma sessions were legal.
The letter states that previous legal guidances “clearly indicate the view that a congressional recess must be longer than three days – and perhaps at least as long as ten — in order for a recess appointment to be constitutional.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a statement that the Justice Department and the White House “owe it to the American people to provide a clear understanding of the process that transpired and the rationale it used to circumvent the checks and balances promised by the Constitution.”
“Overturning 90 years of historical precedent is a major shift in policy that should not be done in a legal opinion made behind closed doors hidden from public scrutiny,“ Grassley said.
The letter is signed by Senate Judiciary Committee members Grassley, Orrin Hatch (Utah), Jon Kyl (Arizona), Jeff Sessions (Alabama), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah) and Tom Coburn (Oklahoma). View it here.
