President Obama’s recent recess appointments have sparked no shortage of legal commentary. Does the president have the power to declare that the Senate is in “recess” in the middle of a session, and then to use his constitutional “recess appointment” power to install disfavored personnel at federal agencies?

I’ve already offered my own analysis of the president’s actions; so have countless others. But the most curious contribution to the debate is Laurence Tribe’s op-ed in the New York Times.  Tribe argues strongly in favor of President Obama’s power to make “intra-session” recess appointments—that is, not just during the formal “recess” between the Senate’s annual “sessions,” but also during a temporary break within a session.