Recess Appointment

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As Recess Appointment in is the United States an appointment ( "appointment") by the President referred to during the meeting break ( "recess") of the Senate is made without his consent. Typically, the US Senate must approve any appointment of ministers , other high-ranking government officials, or judges . However, if the Senate does not meet, for example during the Christmas break (or even more frequently in earlier centuries), the President can make these appointments without confirmation from the plenary. However, the approval of the Senate must be obtained by the end of the new session at the latest. Recess appointments by governors are also widespread at the state level . Recess Appointments are often politically controversial.

description

All high-ranking positions, with the exception of the White House Chief of Staff , which are filled by the US President within the federal government of the United States , require Senate advice and consent . This applies in particular to ministers and their deputies, judges at the Supreme Court and other federal courts, as well as other high-ranking officials such as the director of the CIA foreign intelligence service . The US President nominates a candidate who then has to face one or more hearings in the plenary session of the US Senate . After these are concluded, the US Senate votes on the nominee; only then can he take up his new office. The other chamber of Congress , the House of Representatives , has no say in the appointment of posts.

From the practice of the Senate confirmation, the problem arises that vacant positions have to be filled during the Senate's break. In this case, the constitution authorizes the US president to temporarily fill offices without the consent of the senators:

"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 President has the right to fill vacancies that arise during a recess in the Senate by making appointments that expire at the end of the next session."

If the Senate does not meet, for example during the Christmas holidays, the President can fill offices without the consent of the Senate (de facto by decree ). This appointment must be subsequently confirmed by the Senate. If this consent is not given by the end of the next session, the appeal will automatically expire. In today's practice, this means that the Senate confirmation must be made up at the end of the calendar year following the appointment.

Examples and debate

Recess Appointments have been used by presidents since the country was founded. In 1795, George Washington , the first President of the United States, appointed John Rutledge as federal judge while the Senate was not in session. This appeal was later rejected by the plenary. Several other chief justices were also appointed by Recess Appointment, such as Earl Warren in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower . However, Warren's appeal was later approved by the Senate. During the 1992 summer recess, George HW Bush appointed his deputy secretary of state, Lawrence Eagleburger, as the new secretary of state . The Senate was not confirmed until December that year after Bush lost his re-election the previous month . Eagleburger then served only a few weeks as Secretary of State because President Bush and his cabinet left office. His predecessor Ronald Reagan made a total of 240 Recess Appointments during his eight-year presidency, and Bush's successor Bill Clinton made 139 during the same period.

Recess Appointments are politically controversial, especially if the president belongs to a party other than the Senate majority (see divided government ). From January 2007 to January 2009, during the last two years in office of the Republican President George W. Bush , the Democratic majority leader in the Senate Harry Reid declared that Bush wanted to prevent Recess Appointments. Although he had publicly stated during the summer break of 2007 that he would not make such appointments, he did not rule this out on Thanksgiving of the same year. As a result, the democratic majority in the Senate decided not to take a formal break from meetings.

During 2016, the possibility of a Recess Appointment by President Barack Obama was discussed several times by Democrats and some US media . After the death of Antonin Scalia, he had nominated the lawyer Merrick Garland as a judge at the Supreme Court in March 2016. The Republican Senate majority rejected this process in view of the nearness of the presidential election in November and had already announced before Garland was appointed that it would not accept any candidates from Obama. Observers saw this as politically motivated, since Garland was denied a hearing in plenary in a one-off process due to the structuring of the agenda, although a consultation of the Senate on this is prescribed in the constitution. Obama criticized the behavior of the Republicans, but waived a Recess Appointment so that the new President Donald Trump could nominate his own candidate.

In the American television series House of Cards , President Frank Underwood appoints his wife Claire to UN Ambassador by Recess Appointment, after the Senate had rejected the nomination with a narrow majority a little earlier.

In the states

In the US states , the situation is similar to that at the federal level: Senior government officials and judges in the state courts are appointed by the governor , but usually must be approved by the state senate . If this is not in session, governors and presidents can make a Recess Appointment. However, a subsequent confirmation is required if the respective Senate meets again. Since after-work parliaments are often widespread in smaller states (as opposed to more populous states) , governors sometimes use such appointments more often than presidents. In some cases, this is also politically controversial.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution ( online )
  2. ↑ V. Giampiero Buonomo, Lo scudo di cartone , Rubbettino, 2015 (5.1: La sentenza Canning ) ISBN = 9,788,849,844,405th
  3. ↑ a b Does Obama Have Any Supreme Court Options Left? , Rolling Stone, November 17, 2016 (English)
  4. ↑ Reid To Bush: No Recess Appointments Wanted , CBS News, November 16, 2007 (English)
  5. ↑ Is a recess appointment to the Court an option? , SCOTUS blog, February 22, 2016 (English)