Will Obama risk losing a Supreme Court appointee to his petulance and arrogance?

Tuesday, January 03, 2017 by

(Freedom.news) Just when you thought there could be no more constitutional drama from a president who has tested the limits of the Executive Branch time and again during his tenure–and who has just 16 days left in his last term–there is yet one more opportunity for Barack Obama to tweak our noses, and the nation’s founding document.

As reported by the Washington Times, Obama could use the five minutes between Senate sessions that occurs when gaveling the last session closed and the new session open to recess-appoint Left-wing activist Judge Merrick Garland onto the U.S. Supreme Court:

Mr. Obama’s moment will come just before noon, in the five minutes that the Senate gavels the 114th Congress out of session and the time the 115th Congress begins.

In those few moments the Senate will go into what’s known as an “intersession recess,” creating one golden moment when the president could test his recess-appointment powers by sending Judge Garland to the high court.

 A smattering of activists has asked him to give it a try, but Mr. Obama has given no indication that he’s thinking about it. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

The move would be a legal gamble under the high court’s last ruling in 2014 on recess appointments. That 9-0 decision overturned a handful of Mr. Obama’s early 2012 picks, saying the Senate was actually in session when the president acted, so he couldn’t use his powers.

A handful of legal scholars interviewed for the Times’ story believe that a president may actually have the power to do this, though it is very uncertain as to whether or not the appointment would stand. No doubt it would be challenged in court and no doubt the Supreme Court would eventually get the case–and Garland would have to recuse himself (not legally but ethically).

And there are other pitfalls as well. If somehow Merrick’s appointment stood, it would be short-lived, lasting only until the end of 2017 and perhaps sooner if President Trump nominated, and the Senate confirmed, his own appointee. Plus, Garland would lose his seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is often considered the second most powerful court in the land, since the D.C. Circuit hears all cases related to federal and state regulations and rules.

But mark our words, if Obama thinks for a moment he would be able to get away with this and thus set a new precedent for future presidents, he’ll do it. And as in the past, he will dare us to stop him.

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