Opening Salvo

The NLRB has filed its opening Supreme Court brief in the Noel Canning case, in which the validity of the President's January, 2012 recess appointments of former, putative NLRB members Richard Griffin and Sharon Block are at issue.  Included as an appendix to the brief is an exhaustive list of intra-session recess appointments, going back to President Andrew Johnson in 1867.  Still to come is the company's brief next month, as well as a likely host of amicus briefs supporting one side or the other.

There is, of course, far more at stake in the case than the validity of the President's recess appointments to the NLRB in January, 2012.  The greater Constitutional issue is the scope of the President's recess appointment power generally.  The Supreme Court's decision promises to be a landmark ruling in the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government — the President's power to make recess appointments to senior positions in