In a business meeting of the Judiciary Committee today, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, blasted President Obama’s four recent non-recess appointments and ripped his administration’s legal reasoning justifying the actions.
Lee called all four appointments unconstitutional and promised to “resist the consideration and approval” of all Obama nominations until corrective action was taken. “Regardless of precisely what course I choose to take, the president will not continue to enjoy the same nearly-complete cooperation unless or until he rescinds his unconstitutional recess appointments,” Lee said.
Even if Obama does not rescind the appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Board, or the appointments of Sharon Block, Terence Flynn and Richard Griffin to the National Labor Relations Board, any and all regulations these agencies make will immediately be challenged in federal court. Unless Obama does rescind all of these nominations, a court will decide if Lee’s accusation that Obama acted unconstitutionally is correct.
