Mike Johanns, Republican Senator, Demands Resignation Of 'Unconstitutional' Obama Appointees

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

Mike Johanns, Republican Senator, Demands Resignation Of 'Unconstitutional' Obama Appointees
The Huffington Post | By Peter Finocchiaro Posted: 01/26/2013 10:22 am EST | Updated: 01/26/2013 10:48 am EST

A Republican senator is demanding that officials appointed by President Obama last year step down from their posts on the National Labor Relations Board after a federal district court on Friday ruled their appointments unconstitutional.

Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) posted a press release to his website Friday night saying he had sent letters to three appointees -- Deputy Labor Secretary Sharon Block, union lawyer Richard Griffin of the National Labor Relations Board, and Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- stating that "in light of today's opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit... it is appropriate that you resign effective immediately."

The court's decision actually only relates directly to the appointments of Block and Griffin, though it does cast doubt on the validity of Cordray's as well.

Johanns wrote in his letter to Griffin that "any action taken by the NLRB in the last year should be invalidated," since the Board would technically have been operating below quorum had Block, Griffin and Flynn's appointments not been pushed through.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/johanns-obama-appointees_n_2557616.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[TwilightGardener]

1. Mike Johanns was a useless tool as Nebraska governor. In the Senate, he's a malignant asshole.

[John2]

10. I thought when

something gets in the courts, the order or process is up to the judicial system to decide and it is out of the Legislative Branch, especially if one Party is the complainant. When I read the Brief for the complainants it was signed also by all 41 Republican Senators. If the process is being appealed, where does he get the authority to order anyone to step down? And the President can officially nominate all three since the Senate is now in session.

[TwilightGardener]

11. I think you're right--what sense would it make to force people to resign when there is no final

decision and they might survive a nominating process? The whole thing is bullshit, of course.

[DallasNE]

2. Mike Johanns, Stop Being Such A Jerk

The DC Circuit is perhaps the most conservative in the nation. All three of the justices were appointed by Republicans. To fire these NLRB members would be to nullify the Board because they would lack a quorum and could not operate. And that is the whole point, isn't it. You don't have the votes to abolish the Board so you want to go in the back door and deny them the ability to function in accordance with the law and if that isn't chickensh*t, I don't know what is.

While I am not a fan of the practice of recess appointments it is a practice that has been widely used for 150 years -- 50 years longer than the filibuster rule has been in effect. Bush made 171 such appointments in his 8 years compared to Obama with 32 in 4 years -- even while filibusters have skyrocketed.

[broadcaster75201]

4. THe biggest issue is

What about all prior appointments, in this manner, by other Presidents? Forget Left v Right, that would, likely, invalidate THOUSANDS of regs and acts.

The same thing happened when the bankruptcy Courts were deemed unconstitutional. But, it was worked around. I suspect SCOTUS will do the same here.

[onenote]

9. Under the APA there generally is a six year statute of limitations to seek judicial review of agency

action. (The APA is the Administrative Procedures Act).

And while a lot of recess appointments are covered by that period (i.e, from 2007 forward), whether a particular decision could be challenged would depend on whether the recess appointees participation was a "but for" element of the decision, such as whether there would be a lack of a quorum or, possibly, whether the decision would have come out differently without the vote of the challenged official. That reduces the actual number of instances in which an "invalid" recess appointment could be challenged.

Because recess appointees can only serve until the end of the "next" session of Congress, the only recess appointees currently serving are the two NLRB board members and Richard Cordray since, I believe, those are the only recess appointments that President Obama has made since January 2012 (and whose recess appointments would expire at the end of 2013).

[broadcaster75201]

3. Sure. Just as soon as Bush and Cheny turn themselves into the World Court for War Crime trials n/t

nt

[The Wizard]

5. Just another

radical extremist Republican jerkoff.

[Hugin]

6. Gee, at a time when the Congress Critters are about to screw over the Federal Workforce...

Sending the NLRB into disarray.

No coincidence there.

These assholes don't even try to hide their conflicts-of-interest anymore.

[Omaha Steve]

7. Why didn't Johanns demand the Senate start voting on NLRB board members?

The NLRB didn't have enough board members to legally function and do it's job. Where was Johanns then? Sorry he represents my State of Nebraska!

[elleng]

8. He surely didn't WANT the NLRB to do its job, Steve.

'STOP the Federal government from working,' that's their scheme.