The Obama administration on Thursday formally asked the Supreme Court to review a major ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year that dramatically limits the president’s ability to recess-appoint nominees to important jobs.
The White House appealed the decision in a petition spearheaded by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
President Obama has resorted to the recess appointment power to temporarily end-run persistent Republican filibusters and filibuster threats of nominees to run agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog explains:
The filing challenged both parts of the lower court ruling: that the President’s constitutional authority to make temporary appointments occurs only when the Senate is in recess at the end of an annual session, and that the only appointments allowed are those that occur during such an end-of-session recess. If that ruling stands, the petition contended, it will shut down the President’s appointment power during the periods of Senate inactivity that account for much of the Senate’s annual sittings. (The case is National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning, docket 12-1281.)
