Although the 9-0 Supreme Court ruling against President Barack Obama’s use of recess appointments to fill vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board was hailed as a victory by conservatives that argue the executive branch’s expansion of power should be restrain, conservative talker Mark Levin offered a different take on the ruling.
Along with the 9-0 ruling rebuking Obama’s NLRB appointments was a 5-4 ruling that according to Levin redefined the appointments and recess clauses of the Constitution. And that ruling, he explained, will open the doorway for more executive abuses when it comes to the original intention of the recess appointments clause.
“I call this a post-constitutional period,” Levin said. “Even with this ruling by the Supreme Court – five of the activist liberal justices basically chopped the appointments clause. Now they all slapped Obama’s wrist because he was so completely out of line. The problem is you’re now going to have future presidents who are going to abuse this process. When Congress goes out on vacation, they’re now going to make appointments.”
“The court left open how much time they can go out before the president can make an appointment, but I mean it’s so absurd,” he continued. “They’re rewriting the Constitution as time goes on. I wrote a different book about that called ‘Men In Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America.’ So, while it is good they put Obama in his place, it is bad that a simple majority of the court, 5-4 couldn’t leave it at just that. They went on and rewrote the appointments clause and the recess clause. And that’s not to be applauded. And as time goes on, we will see the ill-effects of this. A president will be empowered to now manipulate the system to avoid Senate confirmations.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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