President Obama violated the U.S. Constitution last week in a breathtaking and unprecedented fashion, by purporting to appoint officers whom he had no legal authority to appoint. Obama named Richard Cordray to head a new consumer protection agency and appointed three new members of the National Labor Relations Board.

He claimed to be making “recess” appointments despite the fact that Congress had not gone into recess. This maneuver violates the Constitution and undermines our finely wrought system of separation of powers.