5 ms·

Now we get to see the first ever anonymous hold put on a nomination for the supreme court. It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Or co

• ceejayoz 11y ago
  > It's the only way they can try to run out the clock on Obama. Two words: recess appointment. They've got a recess coming up later this year.
  • ck2 11y ago
    You know they have a trick for that too. Just just put someone there to gavel in each day and they are technically in session. Ironically the court itself ruled that is perfectly okay to do. Senate is the ultimate politics slimebowl of tricks, they are master level.
    • icebraining 11y ago
      Frankly, and as an outsider, purposefully waiting for a recess to appoint someone seems like the trick to me.
      • dredmorbius 11y ago
        Like it or not, that trick's specifically enshrined and established in the Constitution. That same document Scalia claimed to defend to vigilantly. Probably there for good reasons.
        • icebraining 11y ago
          Again, I'm hardly a scholar of the US Constitution, but if the excerpt of the Federalist papers by Hamilton quoted by Wikipedia[1] is anything to go by, the reason is very clear: to allow for an appointment which "might be necessary for the public service to fill without delay" while the Senate is in recess. That it allows for this trick seems like an unintended consequence. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment#Legitimacy_of_intrasession_appointments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment#Legitimacy_...
          • dredmorbius 11y ago
            And if the Senate itself is engineering that delay? See also rules for allowing legislation to become law, or deny same, without explicit action. Pocket veto and default approval can both happen in this manner: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_veto https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_veto
  • falsestprophet 11y ago
    Not enough words. Here are more words: During the 110th Congress, the Democratic leadership of the Senate specifically blocked Republican President George W. Bush from making any recess appointments with the use of pro forma sessions. In 2012 President Barack Obama attempted to make four appointments during a pro forma session, calling the practice of blocking recess appointments into question. However, on June 26, 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the President had improperly used his presidential power to make these appointments stating that while the Senate was in recess punctuated by pro forma sessions the period of time between the sessions was not long enough to invoke such power.
    • ck2 11y ago
      Yes the republicans came up with a trick to gavel in each day (aka "pro forma sessions") Which made them technically not in recess even though no business was done. And the court ruled that was fine.