{"id":6677,"date":"2012-01-07T00:14:55","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T08:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=6677"},"modified":"2012-01-07T00:14:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T08:14:55","slug":"the-cordray-controversy-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/07\/the-cordray-controversy-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cordray Controversy Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"7CFPB-Logo\"When President Barack Obama recess appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), he ignited a controversy between Democrats and Republicans that could grow into a Constitutional crisis.  Many Republicans are saying that Obama has trashed the Constitution.  Many Democrats are saying that Obama\u2019s appointments are no different that the the recess appointments by previous Presidents.  Both sides are wrong.  Here is why.<\/font><\/p>\n

The President has the authority to make recess appointments when the Senate is not in session for fifteen days or more.  Otherwise, he is required to submit his nominees for the Senate to advise and consent.<\/font><\/p>\n

We are currently in the month called the Christmas Recess, but Republicans have have held a pro-forma<\/em> session, a session lasting for seconds only, every three days.  They have announced that there will no business conducted in these sessions.  It is their position that, since the Senate has not had fifteen days when it was out of session, Obama\u2019s appointments are not legal.  They are correct that, in 2007, Democrats used the same tactic to block the recess appointment of John Bolton, the extreme Neocon who violently opposed the UN, as US Ambassador to the UN.<\/font><\/p>\n

It is Obama\u2019s position  that pro-forma<\/em> sessions are not legitimate sessions, because b Republicans did state they have no intent to conduct business, and therefore, pro-forma<\/em> sessions cannot count against the fifteen day requirement.  If effect, Obama has been saying that the Senate has been out of session the entire time, making his appointments legal.<\/font><\/p>\n

This is different from recess appointments Republicans have made, because Obama\u2019s justification is unique, having never been used before.  But the Republican claim that Obama is trashing the Constitution is equally untrue.  Obama is not trashing the Constitution, because there is no precedent to determine the constitutionality of the act.<\/font><\/p>\n

So the constitutional question here is whether or not a mere pro-forma<\/em> session is legitimate for the purpose of obstructing Presidential recess appointments during a recess that is longer than fifteen days.<\/font><\/p>\n

To make a legal challenge to this Republicans must correctly cast themselves in the role of favoring their own obstruction of legitimate functions of government in order to assist corporate criminals to prey on American consumers and to assist other criminal corporate criminals to deny workers\u2019 rights.  They have foolishly painted themselves into another corner.<\/font><\/p>\n

That said, I cannot say how such a challenge might come out, but I could not be more pleased that Obama has thrown down this gauntlet.<\/font><\/p>\n

To further explain, here is Lawrence O\u2019Donnell\u2019s take on it, including his interview with new CFPB Director, Richard Cordray.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Please take special note of Elizabeth Warren\u2019s two segments in the video.  Also note that a Republican administration could appoint a CFPB Director that could transform the CFPB into a tool to assist Banksters in their predations on the 99%.  This is one more reason that keeping Republicans out of the White House is a generational imperative.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When President Barack Obama recess appointed Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), he ignited a controversy between Democrats and Republicans that could grow into a Constitutional crisis.  Many Republicans are saying that Obama has trashed the Constitution.  Many Democrats are saying […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-19-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}