”This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public. We see it particularly displayed in all the subordinate distributions of power, where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other — that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights. These inventions of prudence cannot be less requisite in the distribution of the supreme powers of the State.” — James Madison, Federalist Papers No. 51
Checks and balances? Not in a dictatorship of the executive.
This past week, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declared invalid Obama “recess appointments” to the National Labor Relations Board when the Senate technically was not in recess, potentially invalidating hundreds of decisions by the board in the past year.
Mark Gaston Pearce
“An interpretation of ‘the Recess’ that permits the President to decide when the Senate is in recess would demolish the checks and balances inherent in the advice-and-consent requirement, giving the President free rein to appoint his desired nominees at any time he pleases, whether that time be a weekend, lunch, or even when the Senate is in session and he is merely displeased with its inaction,” the court ruled. “This cannot be the law.”
So, with deference described by Madison in the Federalist Papers that helped sell the nation on the new Constitution, the chairman of the NLRB, Mark Gaston Pearce promptly thumbed his nose at the court and said it would be ignored.
He issued a statement:
“The Board respectfully disagrees with today’s decision and believes that the President’s position in the matter will ultimately be upheld. It should be noted that this order applies to only one specific case, Noel Canning, and that similar questions have been raised in more than a dozen cases pending in other courts of appeals.
“In the meantime, the Board has important work to do. The parties who come to us seek and expect careful consideration and resolution of their cases, and for that reason, we will continue to perform our statutory duties and issue decisions.”
Of course, the president promptly reined in this outlaw nonsense, right?
Jay Carney, the president’s spokesman, said, “It does not have any impact, as I think the NLRB has already pointed, out on their operations or functions.”
Carney also defiantly stated, “The decision is novel and unprecedented. It contradicts 150 years of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations. so, we respectfully but strongly disagree with the ruling.”
View Carney’s statement.
Keep in mind Tom that very few dictators die peacefully.
Problem is that the court declared invalid all sorts of recess appointments by Presidents Bush, Clinton, and many of their predecessors. I didn’t notice Mr. Mitchell claiming that those appointments made this country into a “dictatorship.”
Bush did not make recess appointments when Reid kept the Senate in phony sessions.
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But the court ruled that all kinds of recess appointments were unconstitutional, including the kinds that Bush made – like John Bolton and Judge William Pryor. Not only are appointments made during brief adjournments during Congressional sessions unconstiutional, but those made during long adjournments are also unconstitutional. So, in fact, are any appointments the vacancies for which did not open up during the period between Congressional sessions.
Be careful what you wish for!
Constitution, Article II, Section 2: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”
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I’m afraid I don’t have time to get deep into the legal weeds. Here. But, given the Senate’s failure to reform the fillibuster and hold rules, the next time we have a Republican President and Democratic Senate, you may deeply regret this decision. (And I guarantee we will someday have such a Republican President and Democratic Senate.) In fact, we don’t even need a Democratic Senate to paralyze the executive branch.
Be careful what you wish for.
This one is going to the Supreme court. Best to wait and see if John Roberts still likes Obama.
“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!”
You can darn well bet that the criminals that write these phony laws know that the jurisdiction of the federal government is limited to federal persons, federal places, federal subject matter. They will do everything they can to deceive you into thinking that their pretended authority reaches everything and every one. They have defined the term “United States” to be limited to the following areas: Washington, D.C., Guam, Northern Marianna Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the continental shelf areas and areas/enclaves/ forts/post offices, federal buildings within the 50 united States of America where they have exclusive legislative jurisdiction.
They know that you do not understand the legal differences between the terms “United States” and “united States of America”. The definition of “United States” is hidden within Title 26, US Code, Internal Revenue. Note the word “Internal”.
Your federal government was overthrown by criminal elements a long, long time ago. You are not taught in the government schools that the killing of Abraham Lincoln amounted to a ‘regime change’. That is the reason we have the Federal Reserve (a private corporation of international banksters) pretending to lend us ‘money’, all counterfeit by the way, and that is the reason why the 14th Amendment precludes you from questioning the fraud of a national debt. The 14th amendment also serves well in causing you to believe that you are subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government when you probably are not. It’s really just common sense, but the people have none, and the brainwashing/ propaganda via the ‘boob tube’ and government schools has done nothing to help.
Stop the federal governments’ control (or lack thereof) of the issuing of scraps of paper as money and return to the constitutional provisions under Article 1, Section 8, as in “No State shall … make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt” and you will take this country out from under the control of the criminal banking syndicate and return this country to it’s proper course of protecting the people instead of robbing them.
OK, I’m done ranting. If you made it this far you are now excused to go back to watching your football games. We all know that is more important than ‘eternal vigilance’ against the organized crime ring that has always existed in the background via secret societies that JFK complained about. JFK and RFK, just another ‘regime change’. Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.
Most people moved along a long time ago, anticriminals.
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