Obama Administration Thumbs Nose At Court Ruling On Separation Of Powers

by Hans Bader on January 25, 2013 · 1 comment

in Labor, Legal, Regulation

Thumbing its nose at the federal courts, which ruled today President Obama’s appointments to the National Labor Relations Board last year were not constitutionally valid “recess appointments,” the Obama administration has indicated it will not remedy constitutional violations identified by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Noel Canning v. NLRB.

Instead, it apparently will continue to defend 200 other NLRB decisions issued by the invalidly appointed NLRB members as if those decisions were valid. It also will disregard the ruling’s binding ramifications for another appointment President Obama made the same day he appointed the NLRB members, which is invalid for the same reason — the “recess” appointment of Richard Cordray to be Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The D.C. Circuit declared there was no “recess” on that particular day for purposes of the Constitution’s Recess Appointments Clause, so Cordray’s appointment was constitutionally invalid, just as the NLRB appointments made on that same day were invalid. (Cordray’s “recess” appointment during a non-existent recess is one of the constitutional violations cited in the pending court case of State National Bank of Big Spring v. Geithner, which also challenges provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act)….To Read More……