
Originally Posted by
Moveon
I'm wondering when the US Senate is in recess?
Recess appointment is a possibility if the Senate gets suborn.
I read a good essay on the options that the President has and the outcomes. One measure that President Obama can do is make a recess appointment to the US Supreme Court while the Senate is not in session. He has almost a full year to do this.
The Senate will probably try to keep the Senate in session all the time until the next president is sworn in or they lose the US Senate Majority in this upcoming election. But they will have to keep a quorum in session to prevent the President from appointing someone when the Senate is not in session.
What does it mean for the US Senate to be in session? That is a key question. Can they open with a quorum and then have everyone leave except for one or two Senators who stay in the Senate until everyone else comes back from vacation. Now this will be argued in the courts for sure. But the thing is with a four to four tie the lower court (appellate) court will make a ruling on this issue if the Supreme Court is deadlocked at 4 to 4. But if the President appoints a liberal to the court and it's at 9 member any cases filed to stop Obama will be ruled on by the Supreme Court with the new recess appointment on the court.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of pretty smart men and women have been giving this a lot of thought in the past 24 hours.
Kids this will be in the History books for years to come.
BTW: this 80 year precedent that the GOP is talking about is total BS. Only one justice has died during the last year of a President's term and that was back in the 1950's. There is no precedent for when a justice dies like this. All the other justices that retired did so earlier in the President Term. Heck I could see one of the older Supreme court Justices retiring right now to allow Obama to replace them before his term ends next year. Now I could see the GOP going crazy over something like that happening. But this was a natural death not a retirement so this is not the same.