Setting the stage for a constitutional showdown, the Obama administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to rule that presidents have broad authority to make certain appointments without Senate approval.
If the nine justices agree to hear the dispute over appointments President Barack Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board last year, it will be one of the biggest issues before the court in its next term, which will begin in October and end in June 2014.
In January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that three appointments to the panel, which normally has five members, were invalid.
The appeals court agreed with Noel Canning, the bottling company that challenged Obama’s move, in finding that the president did not have the authority to make the NLRB appointments because the Senate was not technically in recess at the time.
Read More…