Just days after his highly praised inaugural address, President Barack Obama was batted back down to earth by a court ruling. It criticized the president for violating the separation of powers and usurping the Senate’s role of confirming his appointments.
It’s a body blow for Obama and will give more evidence to his critics that he’s trying to act more like a king or dictator than someone willing to work with all sides in improving the nation.
And the ruling really hurts unions.
Specifically, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., said Obama had tried to bypass the Senate last year with some recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
Obama claimed the Senate was not in official session, so he could take that action – something previous presidents of both parties have done. However, the Senate had agreed to technically stay in session, trying to fend off exactly what Obama eventually did.
The court ruled that the Senate – not Obama – had acted correctly in this matter.
An appeal is expected. However, Republicans as would be expected hailed the decision.
Here’s why this matters to unions: The National Labor Relations Board has been seen by business organizations as a pro-union group. So the GOP and some business leaders have wanted to prevent the group from having a working majority of members.
How do they do that? By the Senate refusing to approve Obama’s nominees.
So now, after Obama’s attempt to get around the Senate’s intransigence has been thrown out by the courts, it’s possible the labor board’s recent decisions will be thrown out, too.
As for the future, with no working majority of members, the board won’t be able to act at all on any labor disputes or questions.
Which is exactly what the GOP has wanted all along.
Yael Abouhalkah is a columnist for The Kansas City Star.
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