Recess appointment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A recess appointment occurs when the President of the United States fills a vacant Federal position during a recess of the United States Senate. The commission or appointment must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session, or the position becomes vacant again. Recess appointments are authorized by Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution: "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."

The purpose of the recess appointment power was to permit the President to keep offices filled when it was anticipated that the Senate would only meet during a small portion of the year. Until the 1930's, Congress rarely convened in the hot Washington summer, and a spring vacancy in an office might have to wait until the Senate convened in December to consider a nomination.

Presidents have sometimes used recess appointments to fill vacancies with individuals who might prove difficult to confirm, or who face staunch opposition within the Senate (see filibuster). The recess appointment may be made in hopes that, by the next session, opposition will have diminished. In recent years, however, a recess appointment has tended to harden the attitude of the opposition party, and confirmation then becomes all the more difficult.

Scholars and legal experts disagree as to how long the Senate must be in recess before the President may make such an appointment. President Theodore Roosevelt made several recess appointments during a one-day recess of the Senate.

[edit] Examples and use

Recess appointments have been made since the earliest days of the republic. President George Washington appointed South Carolina judge John Rutledge as Chief Justice of the United States during a congressional recess in 1795. Because of Rutledge's political views and occasional mental illness, however, the Senate rejected his nomination, and his appointment lapsed. Rutledge subsequently attempted suicide.

On August 11, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt named Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to the United States Supreme Court through a recess appointment. He was subsequently confirmed by the Senate on December 4, 1902.

New Jersey judge William J. Brennan was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 through a recess appointment. This was done partly with an eye on the presidential campaign that year; Eisenhower was running for reelection, and his advisors thought it would be politically advantageous to place a northeastern Catholic on the court. Brennan was promptly confirmed when the Senate came back into session. Eisenhower made two other recess appointments.

Ronald Reagan made 243 recess appointments during his two terms in office; George H. W. Bush made 77 during his single term.

President Bill Clinton made a recess appointment of Bill Lan Lee as Assistant Attorney General for civil rights, when it became clear that Lee's strong support of affirmative action would lead to Senate opposition. Similarly, when the Senate did not vote on his nomination of James Hormel to be Ambassador to Luxembourg, Clinton made a recess appointment. Many people felt that the Senate's inaction was because Hormel was openly gay, and when he was appointed became the first such person to serve as a U.S. ambassador. Clinton made 140 recess appointments over two terms. On one of the last days of his Presidency, Clinton used the recess appointment power to place Roger L. Gregory on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Gregory was the first African-American to serve on that court.

President George W. Bush recess appointed two judges, William Pryor and Charles Pickering to U.S. courts of appeals after their nominations were subjected to a Senate filibuster by opposition Democrats. Judge Pickering of the Fifth Circuit, withdrew his name from consideration for renomination and retired when his recess appointment expired. Judge Pryor was subsequently confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the Eleventh Circuit. As of August 1, 2005, Bush has made 106 recess appointments.

On August 1, 2005, Bush made a recess appointment of John Bolton, to serve as U.S. representative to the United Nations.^[1] Bolton had also been the subject of a Senate filibuster. The filibuster concerned documents, which the White House refused to release, which Democrats suggested may contain proof of Bolton's abusive treatment and coercion of staff members, or of his improper use of National Security Agency communications intercepts regarding U.S. citizens. Having failed to win Senate confirmation, his appointment will end in December 2006 with the expiration of the 109th Congress.^[2]