GOP Senators Ask High Court to Nix Obama Recess Appointments

On Tuesday, all 45 Republican senators signed a brief calling President Obama’s appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was technically still in session an unconstitutional abuse of power, the Hill reports.

The Senate GOP conference has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the recess appointments Obama made in January 2012 as an unconstitutional abuse of power.

“The president’s decision to circumvent the American people by installing his appointees at a powerful federal agency while the Senate was continuing to hold sessions, and without obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate, is an unprecedented power grab,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky.

“We will demonstrate to the Court how the president’s unconstitutional actions fundamentally endanger the Congress’s role in providing a check on the excesses of the executive branch, ” McConnell added.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a brief with the court last week, also arguing that the appointments should be invalidated.

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Obama's three appointments to the NLRB was unconstitutional.

Last month, the White House asked the Supreme Court to review the case.