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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Is The Cordray Appointment Legal?

Today President Obama announced with great joy that he was ignoring the Constitution and naming Richard Cordray to head the newly created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Before we get to the Constitution, which Ezra Klein reminds us was written more than a hundred years ago and can't be understood, maybe we should look at that unremarkable document, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, known in the vernacular as Dodd-Frank. It also is hard to understand even though it was written in 2010 and reportedly was not read by many of the Senators who voted for it. Honest people may disagree about what is meant by a "recess appointment" but the letter of the law as put forth in Dodd-Frank states quite clearly “until the Director of the Bureau is confirmed by the Senate in accordance with Section 1011.” It turns out that section 1011 is a defined term which provides: “The Director shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” a fair reading of the law demands the confirmation of the Director by the Senate.


2 comments:

  1. But how does this differ from Bush's recess appointments? I 'm trying to research that. Any ideas?

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  2. The Senate is not in recess! It holds pro-forma sessions every three days.

    ReplyDelete