By The Daily Caller (Opinion) | Created at 2024-11-20 00:36:34 | Updated at 2024-11-21 17:23:26
1 day ago
Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
November 19, 2024 6:59 PM ET
President-elect Donald Trump should exercise his Executive powers against an obstinate U.S. Senate. This is not only constitutionally legal but also what Americans want.
The Executive has the constitutional authority to bring about a swift confirmation process for Trump’s cabinet appointments should the U.S. Senate attempt to slow-walk the process as they did with many of his appointees during his first term. This power comes from Article 2 Sec. 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the Executive Branch can adjourn both chambers of Congress “in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment.” During that time, he can commission his cabinet nominations without Senate confirmation hearings.
🚨FLASHBACK🚨
In 2012, MSNBC’s @Lawrence said “I agree and everybody agrees that the President has recess appointment power.” pic.twitter.com/s1420YSFJp
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) November 15, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in NLRB v. Noel Canning supports the president’s authority to adjourn both chambers when the body disagreed about whether to take a recess. Justice Scalia, writing for the concurring opinion, argued that “the Senate can avoid triggering the President’s now-vast recess-appointment power by the odd contrivance of never adjourning for more than three days without holding a pro forma session at which it is understood that no business will be conducted.”
The key point here is that Trump 45 made no recess appointments whatsoever—none at all. The reason for this is that McConnell used the pro forma sessions trick to keep the Senate ostensibly in session. In other words, despite Trump giving his wife a very nice job, McConnell… https://t.co/eo4kDSGP1p
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) November 18, 2024
He then agreed with the majority, however, stating that “Members of the President’s party in Congress may be able to prevent the Senate from holding pro forma sessions with the necessary frequency, and if the House and Senate disagree, the President may be able to adjourn both ‘to such Time as he shall think proper.'”
It already seems the Republicans in Congress are willing to allow Trump to exercise this power. Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie responded to whether Trump’s attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz would make it through a senate confirmation by saying, “It doesn’t matter, Trump will have recess appointments. He’s the attorney general. Suck it up.”
GOP Massie says “recess appointments” when asked if GAETZ can get confirmed by the Senate
“He’s the Attorney General. Suck it up!” pic.twitter.com/zTTpQB9NAx
— haleytalbotcnn (@haleytalbotcnn) November 13, 2024
While sitting presidents have made thousands of recess appointments since America’s founding, no president in our history has ever adjourned the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to confirm his cabinet. Trump would be making a historic move supported by the mandate he received from voters on Election Day to fix our country and the powers given to him by the U.S. Constitution.
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton believed that while the “ordinary power of appointment is confined to the President and Senate jointly,” recess appointments are an “auxiliary method of appointment, in cases to which the general method was inadequate.”
Thune says recess appointments are on the table. Excellent. Obama made 32 recess appointments, so we really don’t want to hear whatever democrats have to say about it. pic.twitter.com/Qo32OPE4x2
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) November 15, 2024
The average time between nomination and confirmation for Trump’s cabinet appointments in his first term was 37 days, with several important positions taking much longer. The American people demanded change to the economy, illegal immigration and foreign policy with their overwhelming support of Trump. The U.S. Senate shouldn’t be allowed to deny Americans their needs just because they don’t like who Trump picked to help carry out his plan.
In typical fashion, the “principled” right is claiming that it is unconstitutional for Trump to adjourn both chambers and confirm his appointments without Senate approval. They’ve always had a weak spine for using constitutional authority, which is why the right loses ground year after year while the left continues to wield the full power of the government.
Reagan: 240 recess appointments
H. W. Bush: 77 recess appointments
Clinton: 139 recess appointments
Bush: 171 recess appointments
Obama: 32 recess appointments
But Trump’s own party won’t allow it? Primary anyone who votes against it and get them out. https://t.co/oHYZs4DpK7
— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) November 18, 2024
“I’ve already explained that a president’s blanket recess appointments of Cabinet officials at the start of a presidential term would eviscerate the Senate’s fundamental power of advice and consent; that it’s even more outrageous to think that a president would try to adjourn the Senate in order to make recess appointments; and that any such effort could and should have the upside of enabling the Supreme Court to embrace the position taken by Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Thomas, and Justice Alito ten years ago in NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014)—namely, that the president has no power to make intrasession recess appointments,” Ed Whelan Antonin Scalia Chair at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said in the National Review.
Response to Defense of Trump’s Recess-Appointment Scheme https://t.co/0Vqil2zNr7 I respond to the extended defense of Trump’s recess-appointments scheme that Jeff Clark and Anthony Licata published earlier today.
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) November 18, 2024
Whelan’s argument, and that of the Justices in the concurring opinion, is that the Executive Branch (i.e., the president) has to meet certain requirements in order to have the constitutional authority to make recess appointments because allowing this unchecked power neuters the Senate’s authority. The Justices cite longstanding precedents and previous opinions by the Attorney Generals who agree with their point.
However, the majority opinion in NLRB v. Noel Canning disagreed. In their view, the Constitution and the Founding Fathers (like Alexander Hamilton) allow the Executive Branch to make recess appointments in extended periods of Senate absence.
Similarly, Jeff Clark, a senior fellow and director of litigation for the Center for Renewing America, believes that recess appointments cannot neuter the Senate’s advice and consent authority because, as outlined in the Constitution, they are a “mere binary approbation” of the Executive Branch’s nominees.
Question: @EdWhelanEPPC you served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush, who made 171 recess appointments. Did you advise your boss that he was wrong? https://t.co/Jhw2pmPI7q
— Eric Teetsel (@EricTeetsel) November 14, 2024
“The President retains unfettered discretion to select every Officer to be considered by the Senate for confirmation, whereas the Senate’s advice-and-consent authority is confined to mere binary approbation (i.e., aye or nay) of the President’s nominees,” wrote Clark.
“The appointment power is vested in the President under the regime erected by Article II of the Constitution. Two clauses, in particular, grant this power: the Appointments Clause and the Recess Appointments Clause,” he continued. “These clauses exist to ensure the efficient appointment and near-perpetual commission of subordinate executive officers under the direct charge of the President, so that gaps in offices led by presidential appointees do not exist for lengthy periods of time. ”
Here’s my full interview on Bannon tonight
about DOJ and the recess appointments dispute.
The President has the power to recess appoint in the Constitution.
And he has the constitutional power to adjourn Congress if the two houses disagree about adjournment.
These points… pic.twitter.com/5aXTnLZPZv
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) November 19, 2024
The three branches of government are co-mingled in a way that allows cooperation and checks and balances to each branch’s authority. Trump has every right to bring the Senate to heel if it’s acting against the voter’s wishes.
Americans have been excluded from decision-making for far too long. Our ineffective leaders have relied on their ability to bend their Constitutional powers to their will while using their so-called principles to excuse why they can’t act on our behalf. While the Founding Fathers were rightly worried about a despotic president, they would have been equally as fearful of the actions perpetuated by our current Congressional regime.
JUST IN: Speaker Mike Johnson announces he’s open to recess appointments for President Trump’s Cabinet picks if the Senate doesn’t “do its job.”
DO YOU SUPPORT THIS?
pic.twitter.com/rNIPWWpYwe
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) November 18, 2024
On Nov. 5, Americans fought back against The Machine that has pursued an anti-American globalist agenda by electing Trump. He is merely the battering ram that voters use to bring back the balance of power, and they expect him to carry out his agenda boldly.
