(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2013 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. NOEL
CANNING ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
No. 12–1281. Argued January 13, 2014—Decided June 26, 2014
Respondent Noel Canning, a Pepsi-Cola distributor, asked the D. C.
Circuit to set aside an order of the National Labor Relations Board,
claiming that the Board lacked a quorum because three of the five
Board members had been invalidly appointed. The nominations of
the three members in question were pending in the Senate when it
passed a December 17, 2011, resolution providing for a series of “pro
forma session[s],” with “no business . . . transacted,” every Tuesday
and Friday through January 20, 2012. S. J., 112th Cong., 1st Sess.,
923. Invoking the Recess Appointments Clause—which gives the
President the power “to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during
the Recess of the Senate,” Art. II, §2, cl. 3—the President appointed
the three members in question between the January 3 and January 6
pro forma sessions. Noel Canning argued primarily that the ap-
pointments were invalid because the 3-day adjournment between
those two sessions was not long enough to trigger the Recess Ap-
pointments Clause. The D. C. Circuit agreed that the appointments
fell outside the scope of the Clause, but on different grounds. It held
that the phrase “the recess,” as used in the Clause, does not include
intra-session recesses, and that the phrase “vacancies that may hap-
pen during the recess” applies only to vacancies that first come into
existence during a recess.
Held:
1. The Recess Appointments Clause empowers the President to fill
any existing vacancy during any recess—intra-session or inter-
session—of sufficient length. Pp. 5–33.
(a) Two background considerations are relevant to the questions
here. First, the Recess Appointments Clause is a subsidiary method
2 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
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for appointing officers of the United States. The Founders intended
the norm to be the method of appointment in Article II, §2, cl. 2,
which requires Senate approval of Presidential nominations, at least
for principal officers. The Recess Appointments Clause reflects the
tension between the President’s continuous need for “the assistance
of subordinates,” Myers v. United States, 272 U. S. 52, 117, and the
Senate’s early practice of meeting for a single brief session each year.
The Clause should be interpreted as granting the President the pow-
er to make appointments during a recess but not offering the Presi-
dent the authority routinely to avoid the need for Senate confirma-
tion.
Second, in interpreting the Clause, the Court puts significant
weight upon historical practice. The longstanding “practice of the
government,” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 401, can inform
this Court’s determination of “what the law is” in a separation-of-
powers case, Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 176. See also, e.g.,
Mistretta v. United States, 488 U. S. 361, 401; The Pocket Veto Case,
279 U. S. 655, 689–690. There is a great deal of history to consider
here, for Presidents have made recess appointments since the begin-
ning of the Republic. Their frequency suggests that the Senate and
President have recognized that such appointments can be both neces-
sary and appropriate in certain circumstances. The Court, in inter-
preting the Clause for the first time, must hesitate to upset the com-
promises and working arrangements that the elected branches of
Government themselves have reached. Pp. 5–9.
(b) The phrase “the recess of the Senate” applies to both inter-
session recess (i.e., breaks between formal sessions of the Senate) and
intra-session recesses (i.e., breaks in the midst of a formal session) of
substantial length. The constitutional text is ambiguous. Founding-
era dictionaries and usages show that the phrase “the recess” can en-
compass intra-session breaks. And this broader interpretation is
demanded by the purpose of the Clause, which is to allow the Presi-
dent to make appointments so as to ensure the continued functioning
of the Government while the Senate is away. The Senate is equally
away and unavailable to participate in the appointments process dur-
ing both an inter-session and an intra-session recess. History offers
further support for this interpretation. From the founding until the
Great Depression, every time the Senate took a substantial, non-
holiday intra-session recess, the President made recess appoint-
ments. President Andrew Johnson made the first documented intra-
session recess appointments in 1867 and 1868, and Presidents made
similar appointments in 1921 and 1929. Since 1929, and particularly
since the end of World War II, Congress has shortened its inter-
session breaks and taken longer and more frequent intra-session
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breaks; Presidents accordingly have made more intra-session recess
appointments. Meanwhile, the Senate has never taken any formal
action to deny the validity of intra-session recess appointments. In
1905, the Senate Judiciary Committee defined “the recess” as “the
period of time when the Senate” is absent and cannot “participate as
a body in making appointments,” S. Rep. No. 4389, 58th Cong., 3d
Sess., p. 2, and that functional definition encompasses both intra-
session and inter-session recesses. A 1940 law regulating the pay-
ment of recess appointees has also been interpreted functionally by
the Comptroller General (an officer of the Legislative Branch). In
sum, Presidents have made intra-session recess appointments for a
century and a half, and the Senate has never taken formal action to
oppose them. That practice is long enough to entitle it to “great
weight in a proper interpretation” of the constitutional provision.
The Pocket Veto Case, supra, at 689.
The Clause does not say how long a recess must be in order to fall
within the Clause, but even the Solicitor General concedes that a 3-
day recess would be too short. The Adjournments Clause, Art. I, §5,
cl. 4, reflects the fact that a 3-day break is not a significant interrup-
tion of legislative business. A Senate recess that is so short that it
does not require the consent of the House under that Clause is not
long enough to trigger the President’s recess-appointment power.
Moreover, the Court has not found a single example of a recess ap-
pointment made during an intra-session recess that was shorter than
10 days. There are a few examples of inter-session recess appoint-
ments made during recesses of less than 10 days, but these are
anomalies. In light of historical practice, a recess of more than 3
days but less than 10 days is presumptively too short to fall within
the Clause. The word “presumptively” leaves open the possibility
that a very unusual circumstance could demand the exercise of the
recess-appointment power during a shorter break. Pp. 9–21.
(c) The phrase “vacancies that may happen during the recess of
the Senate,” Art. II, §2, cl. 3, applies both to vacancies that first come
into existence during a recess and to vacancies that initially occur be-
fore a recess but continue to exist during the recess. Again, the text
is ambiguous. As Thomas Jefferson observed, the Clause is “certain-
ly susceptible of [two] constructions.” Letter to Wilson Cary Nicholas
(Jan. 26, 1802), in 36 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 433. It “may mean
‘vacancies that may happen to be’ or ‘may happen to fall’ ” during a
recess. Ibid. And, as Attorney General Wirt wrote in 1821, the
broader reading is more consonant with the “reason and spirit” of the
Clause. 1 Op. Atty. Gen. 632. The purpose of the Clause is to permit
the President, who is always acting to execute the law, to obtain the
assistance of subordinate officers while the Senate, which acts only in
4 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
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intervals, is unavailable to confirm them. If a vacancy arises too late
in the session for the President and Senate to have an opportunity to
select a replacement, the narrower reading could paralyze important
functions of the Federal Government, particularly at the time of the
founding. The broader interpretation ensures that offices needing to
be filled can be filled. It does raise a danger that the President may
attempt to use the recess-appointment power to circumvent the Sen-
ate’s advice and consent role. But the narrower interpretation risks
undermining constitutionally conferred powers more seriously and
more often. It would prevent a President from making any recess
appointment to fill a vacancy that arose before a recess, no matter
who the official, how dire the need, how uncontroversial the appoint-
ment, and how late in the session the office fell vacant.
Historical practice also strongly favors the broader interpretation.
The tradition of applying the Clause to pre-recess vacancies dates at
least to President Madison. Nearly every Attorney General to con-
sider the question has approved the practice, and every President
since James Buchanan has made recess appointments to pre-existing
vacancies. It is a fair inference from the historical data that a large
proportion of recess appointments over our Nation’s history have
filled pre-recess vacancies. The Senate Judiciary Committee in 1863
did issue a report disagreeing with the broader interpretation, and
Congress passed a law known as the Pay Act prohibiting payment of
recess appointments to pre-recess vacancies soon after. However, the
Senate subsequently abandoned its hostility. In 1940, the Senate
amended the Pay Act to permit payment of recess appointees in cir-
cumstances that would be unconstitutional under the narrower in-
terpretation. In short, Presidents have made recess appointments to
preexisting vacancies for two centuries, and the Senate as a body has
not countered this practice for nearly three-quarters of a century,
perhaps longer. The Court is reluctant to upset this traditional prac-
tice where doing so would seriously shrink the authority that Presi-
dents have believed existed and have exercised for so long. Pp. 21–
33.
2. For purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause, the Senate is
in session when it says that it is, provided that, under its own rules,
it retains the capacity to transact Senate business.
This standard is consistent with the Constitution’s broad delega-
tion of authority to the Senate to determine how and when to conduct
its business, as recognized by this Court’s precedents. See Art. I, §5,
cl. 2; Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649, 672; United States
v. Ballin, 144 U. S. 1, 5, 9. Although the Senate’s own determination
of when it is and is not in session should be given great weight, the
Court’s deference cannot be absolute. When the Senate is without
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the capacity to act, under its own rules, it is not in session even if it
so declares.
Under the standard set forth here, the Senate was in session dur-
ing the pro forma sessions at issue. It said it was in session, and
Senate rules make clear that the Senate retained the power to con-
duct business. The Senate could have conducted business simply by
passing a unanimous consent agreement. In fact, it did so; it passed
a bill by unanimous consent during its pro forma session on Decem-
ber 23, 2011. See 2011 S. J. 924; Pub. L. 112–78. The Court will not,
as the Solicitor General urges, engage in an in-depth factual apprais-
al of what the Senate actually did during its pro forma sessions in or-
der to determine whether it was in recess or in session for purposes of
the Recess Appointments Clause.
Because the Senate was in session during its pro forma sessions,
the President made the recess appointments at issue during a 3-day
recess. Three days is too short a time to bring a recess within the
scope of the Clause, so the President lacked the authority to make
those appointments. Pp. 33–41.
705 F. 3d 490, affirmed.
BREYER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which KENNEDY,
GINSBURG, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., filed an
opinion concurring in the judgment, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and
THOMAS and ALITO, JJ., joined.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 12–1281
_________________
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, PETITIONER
v. NOEL CANNING, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
[June 26, 2014]
JUSTICE BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court.
Ordinarily the President must obtain “the Advice and
Consent of the Senate” before appointing an “Office[r] of
the United States.” U. S. Const., Art. II, §2, cl. 2. But the
Recess Appointments Clause creates an exception. It
gives the President alone the power “to fill up all Vacan
cies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by
granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of
their next Session.” Art. II, §2, cl. 3. We here consider
three questions about the application of this Clause.
The first concerns the scope of the words “recess of the
Senate.” Does that phrase refer only to an inter-session
recess (i.e., a break between formal sessions of Congress),
or does it also include an intra-session recess, such as a
summer recess in the midst of a session? We conclude
that the Clause applies to both kinds of recess.
The second question concerns the scope of the words
“vacancies that may happen.” Does that phrase refer only
to vacancies that first come into existence during a recess,
or does it also include vacancies that arise prior to a recess
but continue to exist during the recess? We conclude that
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the Clause applies to both kinds of vacancy.
The third question concerns calculation of the length of
a “recess.” The President made the appointments here at
issue on January 4, 2012. At that time the Senate was in
recess pursuant to a December 17, 2011, resolution provid
ing for a series of brief recesses punctuated by “pro forma
session[s],” with “no business . . . transacted,” every Tues
day and Friday through January 20, 2012. S. J., 112th
Cong., 1st Sess., 923 (2011) (hereinafter 2011 S. J.). In
calculating the length of a recess are we to ignore the pro
forma sessions, thereby treating the series of brief recesses
as a single, month-long recess? We conclude that we
cannot ignore these pro forma sessions.
Our answer to the third question means that, when the
appointments before us took place, the Senate was in the
midst of a 3-day recess. Three days is too short a time to
bring a recess within the scope of the Clause. Thus we
conclude that the President lacked the power to make the
recess appointments here at issue.
I
The case before us arises out of a labor dispute. The
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that a
Pepsi-Cola distributor, Noel Canning, had unlawfully
refused to reduce to writing and execute a collective
bargaining agreement with a labor union. The Board
ordered the distributor to execute the agreement and to
make employees whole for any losses. Noel Canning, 358
N. L. R. B. No. 4 (2012).
The Pepsi-Cola distributor subsequently asked the
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to set
the Board’s order aside. It claimed that three of the five
Board members had been invalidly appointed, leaving the
Board without the three lawfully appointed members
necessary for it to act. See 29 U. S. C. §160(f) (providing
for judicial review); §153(a) (providing for a 5-member
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Board); §153(b) (providing for a 3-member quorum); New
Process Steel, L. P. v. NLRB, 560 U. S. 674, 687–688
(2010) (in the absence of a lawfully appointed quorum, the
Board cannot exercise its powers).
The three members in question were Sharon Block,
Richard Griffin, and Terence Flynn. In 2011 the President
had nominated each of them to the Board. As of January
2012, Flynn’s nomination had been pending in the Senate
awaiting confirmation for approximately a year. The
nominations of each of the other two had been pending for
a few weeks. On January 4, 2012, the President, invoking
the Recess Appointments Clause, appointed all three to
the Board.
The distributor argued that the Recess Appointments
Clause did not authorize those appointments. It pointed
out that on December 17, 2011, the Senate, by unanimous
consent, had adopted a resolution providing that it would
take a series of brief recesses beginning the following day.
See 2011 S. J. 923. Pursuant to that resolution, the Sen
ate held pro forma sessions every Tuesday and Friday
until it returned for ordinary business on January 23,
2012. Ibid.; 158 Cong. Rec. S1–S11 (Jan. 3–20, 2012). The
President’s January 4 appointments were made between
the January 3 and January 6 pro forma sessions. In the
distributor’s view, each pro forma session terminated the
immediately preceding recess. Accordingly, the appoint
ments were made during a 3-day adjournment, which is
not long enough to trigger the Recess Appointments
Clause.
The Court of Appeals agreed that the appointments fell
outside the scope of the Clause. But the court set forth
different reasons. It held that the Clause’s words “the
recess of the Senate” do not include recesses that occur
within a formal session of Congress, i.e., intra-session
recesses. Rather those words apply only to recesses be-
tween those formal sessions, i.e., inter-session recesses.
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Since the second session of the 112th Congress began on
January 3, 2012, the day before the President’s appoint
ments, those appointments occurred during an intra
session recess, and the appointments consequently fell
outside the scope of the Clause. 705 F. 3d 490, 499–507
(CADC 2013).
The Court of Appeals added that, in any event, the
phrase “vacancies that may happen during the recess”
applies only to vacancies that come into existence during a
recess. Id., at 507–512. The vacancies that Members
Block, Griffin, and Flynn were appointed to fill had arisen
before the beginning of the recess during which they were
appointed. For this reason too the President’s appoint
ments were invalid. And, because the Board lacked a
quorum of validly appointed members when it issued its
order, the order was invalid. 29 U. S. C. §153(b); New
Process Steel, supra.
We granted the Solicitor General’s petition for certio
rari. We asked the parties to address not only the Court of
Appeals’ interpretation of the Clause but also the distribu
tor’s initial argument, namely, “[w]hether the President’s
recess-appointment power may be exercised when the
Senate is convening every three days in pro forma ses
sions.” 570 U. S. ___ (2013).
We shall answer all three questions presented. We
recognize that the President has nominated others to fill
the positions once occupied by Members Block, Griffin,
and Flynn, and that the Senate has confirmed these suc
cessors. But, as the parties recognize, the fact that the
Board now unquestionably has a quorum does not moot
the controversy about the validity of the previously en
tered Board order. And there are pending before us peti
tions from decisions in other cases involving challenges to
the appointment of Board Member Craig Becker. The
President appointed Member Becker during an intra
session recess that was not punctuated by pro forma ses
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sions, and the vacancy Becker filled had come into exist
ence prior to the recess. See Congressional Research
Service, H. Hogue, M. Carey, M. Greene, & M. Bearden,
The Noel Canning Decision and Recess Appointments
Made from 1981–2013, p. 28 (Feb. 4, 2013) (hereinaf
ter The Noel Canning Decision); NLRB, Members of
the NLRB since 1935, online at http://www.nlrb.gov/
who-we-are/board/members-nlrb-1935 (all Internet mate
rials as visited June 24, 2014, and available in Clerk of
Court’s case file). Other cases involving similar challenges
are also pending in the Courts of Appeals. E.g., NLRB v.
New Vista Nursing & Rehabilitation, No. 11–3440 etc.
(CA3). Thus, we believe it is important to answer all three
questions that this case presents.
II
Before turning to the specific questions presented, we
shall mention two background considerations that we find
relevant to all three. First, the Recess Appointments
Clause sets forth a subsidiary, not a primary, method for
appointing officers of the United States. The immediately
preceding Clause—Article II, Section 2, Clause 2—
provides the primary method of appointment. It says that
the President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors,
other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme
Court, and all other Officers of the United States” (empha
sis added).
The Federalist Papers make clear that the Founders
intended this method of appointment, requiring Senate
approval, to be the norm (at least for principal officers).
Alexander Hamilton wrote that the Constitution vests the
power of nomination in the President alone because “one
man of discernment is better fitted to analise and estimate
the peculiar qualities adapted to particular offices, than a
body of men of equal, or perhaps even of superior discern
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ment.” The Federalist No. 76, p. 510 (J. Cooke ed. 1961).
At the same time, the need to secure Senate approval
provides “an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in
the President, and would tend greatly to preventing the
appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from
family connection, from personal attachment, or from a
view to popularity.” Id., at 513. Hamilton further ex
plained that the
“ordinary power of appointment is confided to the
President and Senate jointly, and can therefore only
be exercised during the session of the Senate; but as it
would have been improper to oblige this body to be
continually in session for the appointment of officers;
and as vacancies might happen in their recess, which
it might be necessary for the public service to fill
without delay, the succeeding clause is evidently in
tended to authorise the President singly to make tem
porary appointments.” Id., No. 67, at 455.
Thus the Recess Appointments Clause reflects the ten
sion between, on the one hand, the President’s continuous
need for “the assistance of subordinates,” Myers v. United
States, 272 U. S. 52, 117 (1926), and, on the other, the
Senate’s practice, particularly during the Republic’s early
years, of meeting for a single brief session each year, see
Art. I, §4, cl. 2; Amdt. 20, §2 (requiring the Senate to
“assemble” only “once in every year”); 3 J. Story, Commen
taries on the Constitution of the United States §1551, p.
410 (1833) (it would be “burthensome to the senate, and
expensive to the public” to require the Senate to be “per
petually in session”). We seek to interpret the Clause as
granting the President the power to make appointments
during a recess but not offering the President the author
ity routinely to avoid the need for Senate confirmation.
Second, in interpreting the Clause, we put significant
weight upon historical practice. For one thing, the inter
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pretive questions before us concern the allocation of power
between two elected branches of Government. Long ago
Chief Justice Marshall wrote that
“a doubtful question, one on which human reason may
pause, and the human judgment be suspended, in the
decision of which the great principles of liberty are not
concerned, but the respective powers of those who are
equally the representatives of the people, are to be ad-
justed; if not put at rest by the practice of the gov-
ernment, ought to receive a considerable impression
from that practice.” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat.
316, 401 (1819).
And we later confirmed that “[l]ong settled and estab-
lished practice is a consideration of great weight in a
proper interpretation of constitutional provisions” regulat-
ing the relationship between Congress and the President.
The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U. S. 655, 689 (1929); see also
id., at 690 (“[A] practice of at least twenty years duration
‘on the part of the executive department, acquiesced in by
the legislative department, . . . is entitled to great regard
in determining the true construction of a constitutional
provision the phraseology of which is in any respect of
doubtful meaning’ ” (quoting State v. South Norwalk, 77
Conn. 257, 264, 58 A. 759, 761 (1904))).
We recognize, of course, that the separation of powers
can serve to safeguard individual liberty, Clinton v. City of
New York, 524 U. S. 417, 449–450 (1998) (KENNEDY, J.,
concurring), and that it is the “duty of the judicial depart-
ment”—in a separation-of-powers case as in any other—“to
say what the law is,” Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137,
177 (1803). But it is equally true that the longstanding
“practice of the government,” McCulloch, supra, at 401,
can inform our determination of “what the law is,” Mar-
bury, supra, at 177.
That principle is neither new nor controversial. As
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James Madison wrote, it “was foreseen at the birth of the
Constitution, that difficulties and differences of opinion
might occasionally arise in expounding terms & phrases
necessarily used in such a charter . . . and that it might
require a regular course of practice to liquidate & settle
the meaning of some of them.” Letter to Spencer Roane
(Sept. 2, 1819), in 8 Writings of James Madison 450 (G.
Hunt ed. 1908). And our cases have continually confirmed
Madison’s view. E.g., Mistretta v. United States, 488 U. S.
361, 401 (1989); Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U. S. 654,
686 (1981); Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343
U. S. 579, 610–611 (1952) (Frankfurter, J., concurring);
The Pocket Veto Case, supra, at 689–690; Ex parte Gross-
man, 267 U. S. 87, 118–119 (1925); United States v. Mid-
west Oil Co., 236 U. S. 459, 472–474 (1915); McPherson v.
Blacker, 146 U. S. 1, 27 (1892); McCulloch, supra; Stuart
v. Laird, 1 Cranch 299 (1803).
These precedents show that this Court has treated
practice as an important interpretive factor even when the
nature or longevity of that practice is subject to dispute,
and even when that practice began after the founding era.
See Mistretta, supra, 400–401 (“While these [practices]
spawned spirited discussion and frequent criticism, . . .
‘traditional ways of conducting government . . . give mean
ing’ to the Constitution” (quoting Youngstown, supra, at
610) (Frankfurter, J., concurring)); Regan, supra, at 684
(“[E]ven if the pre-1952 [practice] should be disregarded,
congressional acquiescence in [a practice] since that time
supports the President’s power to act here”); The Pocket
Veto Case, supra, at 689–690 (postfounding practice is
entitled to “great weight”); Grossman, supra, at 118–119
(postfounding practice “strongly sustains” a “construction”
of the Constitution).
There is a great deal of history to consider here. Presi
dents have made recess appointments since the beginning
of the Republic. Their frequency suggests that the Senate
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and President have recognized that recess appointments
can be both necessary and appropriate in certain circum
stances. We have not previously interpreted the Clause,
and, when doing so for the first time in more than 200
years, we must hesitate to upset the compromises and
working arrangements that the elected branches of Gov
ernment themselves have reached.
III
The first question concerns the scope of the phrase “the
recess of the Senate.” Art. II, §2, cl. 3 (emphasis added).
The Constitution provides for congressional elections
every two years. And the 2-year life of each elected Con
gress typically consists of two formal 1-year sessions, each
separated from the next by an “inter-session recess.”
Congressional Research Service, H. Hogue, Recess Ap
pointments: Frequently Asked Questions 2 (2013). The
Senate or the House of Representatives announces an
inter-session recess by approving a resolution stating that
it will “adjourn sine die,” i.e., without specifying a date to
return (in which case Congress will reconvene when the
next formal session is scheduled to begin).
The Senate and the House also take breaks in the midst
of a session. The Senate or the House announces any such
“intra-session recess” by adopting a resolution stating that
it will “adjourn” to a fixed date, a few days or weeks or
even months later. All agree that the phrase “the recess of
the Senate” covers inter-session recesses. The question is
whether it includes intra-session recesses as well.
In our view, the phrase “the recess” includes an intra
session recess of substantial length. Its words taken
literally can refer to both types of recess. Founding-era
dictionaries define the word “recess,” much as we do today,
simply as “a period of cessation from usual work.” 13 The
Oxford English Dictionary 322–323 (2d ed. 1989) (herein
after OED) (citing 18th- and 19th-century sources for that
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definition of “recess”); 2 N. Webster, An American Diction
ary of the English Language (1828) (“[r]emission or sus
pension of business or procedure”); 2 S. Johnson, A Dic
tionary of the English Language 1602–1603 (4th ed. 1773)
(hereinafter Johnson) (same). The Founders themselves
used the word to refer to intra-session, as well as to inter
session, breaks. See, e.g., 3 Records of the Federal Con
vention of 1787, p. 76 (M. Farrand rev. 1966) (hereinafter
Farrand) (letter from George Washington to John Jay
using “the recess” to refer to an intra-session break of the
Constitutional Convention); id., at 191 (speech of Luther
Martin with a similar usage); 1 T. Jefferson, A Manual
of Parliamentary Practice §LI, p. 165 (2d ed. 1812) (de
scribing a “recess by adjournment” which did not end a
session).
We recognize that the word “the” in “the recess” might
suggest that the phrase refers to the single break separat
ing formal sessions of Congress. That is because the word
“the” frequently (but not always) indicates “a particular
thing.” 2 Johnson 2003. But the word can also refer “to a
term used generically or universally.” 17 OED 879. The
Constitution, for example, directs the Senate to choose a
President pro tempore “in the Absence of the Vice-
President.” Art. I, §3, cl. 5 (emphasis added). And the
Federalist Papers refer to the chief magistrate of an an
cient Achaean league who “administered the government
in the recess of the Senate.” The Federalist No. 18, at 113
(J. Madison) (emphasis added). Reading “the” generically
in this way, there is no linguistic problem applying the
Clause’s phrase to both kinds of recess. And, in fact, the
phrase “the recess” was used to refer to intra-session
recesses at the time of the founding. See, e.g., 3 Farrand
76 (letter from Washington to Jay); New Jersey Legislative-
Council Journal, 5th Sess., 1st Sitting 70, 2d Sitting 9
(1781) (twice referring to a 4-month, intra-session break
as “the Recess”); see also Brief for Petitioner 14–16 (listing
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examples).
The constitutional text is thus ambiguous. And we
believe the Clause’s purpose demands the broader inter
pretation. The Clause gives the President authority to
make appointments during “the recess of the Senate” so
that the President can ensure the continued functioning of
the Federal Government when the Senate is away. The
Senate is equally away during both an inter-session and
an intra-session recess, and its capacity to participate in
the appointments process has nothing to do with the
words it uses to signal its departure.
History also offers strong support for the broad interpre
tation. We concede that pre-Civil War history is not help
ful. But it shows only that Congress generally took long
breaks between sessions, while taking no significant intra
session breaks at all (five times it took a break of a week
or so at Christmas). See Appendix A, infra. Obviously, if
there are no significant intra-session recesses, there will
be no intra-session recess appointments. In 1867 and
1868, Congress for the first time took substantial, non
holiday intra-session breaks, and President Andrew John
son made dozens of recess appointments. The Federal
Court of Claims upheld one of those specific appointments,
writing “[w]e have no doubt that a vacancy occurring while
the Senate was thus temporarily adjourned” during the
“first session of the Fortieth Congress” was “legally filled
by appointment of the President alone.” Gould v. United
States, 19 Ct. Cl. 593, 595–596 (1884) (emphasis added).
Attorney General Evarts also issued three opinions con
cerning the constitutionality of President Johnson’s ap
pointments, and it apparently did not occur to him that
the distinction between intra-session and inter-session
recesses was significant. See 12 Op. Atty. Gen. 449 (1868);
12 Op. Atty. Gen. 455 (1868); 12 Op. Atty. Gen. 469 (1868).
Similarly, though the 40th Congress impeached President
Johnson on charges relating to his appointment power, he
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was not accused of violating the Constitution by mak
ing intra-session recess appointments. Hartnett, Recess
Appointments of Article III Judges: Three Constitutional
Questions, 26 Cardozo L. Rev. 377, 409 (2005).
In all, between the founding and the Great Depression,
Congress took substantial intra-session breaks (other than
holiday breaks) in four years: 1867, 1868, 1921, and 1929.
Appendix A, infra. And in each of those years the Presi
dent made intra-session recess appointments. See App. to
Brief for Petitioner 1a–11a.
Since 1929, and particularly since the end of World War
II, Congress has shortened its inter-session breaks as it
has taken longer and more frequent intra-session breaks;
Presidents have correspondingly made more intra-session
recess appointments. Indeed, if we include military ap
pointments, Presidents have made thousands of intra
session recess appointments. Id., at 11a–64a. President
Franklin Roosevelt, for example, commissioned Dwight
Eisenhower as a permanent Major General during an
intra-session recess; President Truman made Dean Ache
son Under Secretary of State; and President George H. W.
Bush reappointed Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board. Id., at 11a, 12a, 40a. JUSTICE
SCALIA does not dispute any of these facts.
Not surprisingly, the publicly available opinions of
Presidential legal advisers that we have found are nearly
unanimous in determining that the Clause authorizes
these appointments. In 1921, for example, Attorney Gen
eral Daugherty advised President Harding that he could
make intra-session recess appointments. He reasoned:
“If the President’s power of appointment is to be de
feated because the Senate takes an adjournment to a
specified date, the painful and inevitable result will be
measurably to prevent the exercise of governmental
functions. I can not bring myself to believe that the
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framers of the Constitution ever intended such a ca
tastrophe to happen.” 33 Op. Atty. Gen. 20, 23.
We have found memoranda offering similar advice to
President Eisenhower and to every President from Carter
to the present. See 36 Opinion of Office of Legal Counsel
(Op. OLC) ___, ___ (2012), online at www.justice.gov/
olc/opiniondocslpro-forma-sessions-opinion.pdf; 25 Op.
OLC 182 (2001); 20 Op. OLC 124, 161 (1996); 16 Op. OLC
15 (1992); 13 Op. OLC 271 (1989); 6 Op. OLC 585, 586
(1982); 3 Op. OLC 314, 316 (1979); 41 Op. Atty. Gen. 463,
466 (1960).
We must note one contrary opinion authored by Presi
dent Theodore Roosevelt’s Attorney General Philander
Knox. Knox advised the President that the Clause did not
cover a 19–day intra-session Christmas recess. 23 Op.
Atty. Gen. 599 (1901). But in doing so he relied heavily
upon the use of the word “the,” a linguistic point that we
do not find determinative. See supra, at 10. And Knox all
but confessed that his interpretation ran contrary to the
basic purpose of the Clause. For it would permit the
Senate to adjourn for “several months,” to a fixed date,
and thereby “seriously curtail the President’s power of
making recess appointments.” 23 Op. Atty. Gen., at 603.
Moreover, only three days before Knox gave his opinion,
the Solicitor of the Treasury came to the opposite conclu
sion. Reply Brief 7, n. 5. We therefore do not think Knox’s
isolated opinion can disturb the consensus advice within
the Executive Branch taking the opposite position.
What about the Senate? Since Presidents began making
intra-session recess appointments, individual Senators
have taken differing views about the proper definition of
“the recess.” See, e.g., 130 Cong. Rec. 23234 (1984) (reso
lution introduced by Senator Byrd urging limits on the
length of applicable intra-session recesses); Brief for Sen.
Mitch McConnell et al. as Amici Curiae 26 (an intra
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session adjournment does not count as “the recess”); Brief
for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as Amicus Curiae in Frank-
lin v. United States, O. T. 2004, No. 04–5858, p. 5 (same).
But neither the Senate considered as a body nor its com
mittees, despite opportunities to express opposition to the
practice of intra-session recess appointments, has done so.
Rather, to the extent that the Senate or a Senate commit
tee has expressed a view, that view has favored a func
tional definition of “recess,” and a functional definition
encompasses intra-session recesses.
Most notably, in 1905 the Senate Committee on the
Judiciary objected strongly to President Theodore Roose
velt’s use of the Clause to make more than 160 recess
appointments during a “fictitious” inter-session recess.
S. Rep. No. 4389, 58th Cong., 3d Sess., p. 2 (hereinafter
1905 Senate Report). At noon on December 7, 1903, the
Senate President pro tempore had “declare[d]” a formal,
“extraordinary session” of the Senate “adjourned without
day,” and the next formal Senate session began immedi
ately afterwards. 37 Cong. Rec. 544 (1903). President
Roosevelt made over 160 recess appointments during the
instantaneous inter-session interval. The Judiciary Com
mittee, when stating its strong objection, defined “recess”
in functional terms as
“the period of time when the Senate is not sitting in
regular or extraordinary session as a branch of the
Congress . . . ; when its members owe no duty of at
tendance; when its Chamber is empty; when, because
of its absence, it can not receive communications from
the President or participate as a body in making ap
pointments.” 1905 Senate Report, at 2 (emphasis
deleted).
That functional definition encompasses intra-session, as
well as inter-session, recesses. JUSTICE SCALIA is right
that the 1905 Report did not specifically address the dis
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tinction between inter-session and intra-session recesses.
But the animating principle of the Report—that “recess”
should be practically construed to mean a time when the
Senate is unavailable to participate in the appointments
process—is inconsistent with the formalistic approach that
JUSTICE SCALIA endorses.
Similarly, in 1940 the Senate helped to enact a law
regulating the payment of recess appointees, and the
Comptroller General of the United States has interpreted
that law functionally. An earlier 1863 statute had denied
pay to individuals appointed to fill up vacancies first
arising prior to the beginning of a recess. The Senate
Judiciary Committee then believed that those vacancies
fell outside the scope of the Clause. See infra, at 30. In
1940, however, the Senate amended the law to permit
many of those recess appointees to be paid. Act of July 11,
54 Stat. 751. Interpreting the amendments in 1948, the
Comptroller General—who, unlike the Attorney General,
is an “officer of the Legislative Branch,” Bowsher v. Synar,
478 U. S. 714, 731 (1986)—wrote:
“I think it is clear that [the Pay Act amendments’]
primary purpose was to relieve ‘recess appointees’ of
the burden of serving without compensation during
periods when the Senate is not actually sitting and is
not available to give its advice and consent in respect
to the appointment, irrespective of whether the recess
of the Senate is attributable to a final adjournment
sine die or to an adjournment to a specified date.” 28
Comp. Gen. 30, 37.
We recognize that the Senate cannot easily register
opposition as a body to every governmental action that
many, perhaps most, Senators oppose. But the Senate has
not been silent or passive regarding the meaning of the
Clause: A Senate Committee did register opposition to
President Theodore Roosevelt’s use of the Clause, and the
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Senate as a whole has legislated in an effort to discourage
certain kinds of recess appointments. And yet we are not
aware of any formal action it has taken to call into ques
tion the broad and functional definition of “recess” first
set out in the 1905 Senate Report and followed by the
Executive Branch since at least 1921. Nor has JUSTICE
SCALIA identified any. All the while, the President has
made countless recess appointments during intra-session
recesses.
The upshot is that restricting the Clause to inter-session
recesses would frustrate its purpose. It would make the
President’s recess-appointment power dependent on a
formalistic distinction of Senate procedure. Moreover, the
President has consistently and frequently interpreted the
word “recess” to apply to intra-session recesses, and has
acted on that interpretation. The Senate as a body has
done nothing to deny the validity of this practice for at
least three-quarters of a century. And three-quarters of a
century of settled practice is long enough to entitle a
practice to “great weight in a proper interpretation” of the
constitutional provision. The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U. S.,
at 689.
We are aware of, but we are not persuaded by, three
important arguments to the contrary. First, some argue
that the Founders would likely have intended the Clause
to apply only to inter-session recesses, for they hardly
knew any other. See, e.g., Brief for Originalist Scholars as
Amici Curiae 27–29. Indeed, from the founding until the
Civil War inter-session recesses were the only kind of
significant recesses that Congress took. The problem with
this argument, however, is that it does not fully describe
the relevant founding intent. The question is not: Did the
Founders at the time think about intra-session recesses?
Perhaps they did not. The question is: Did the Founders
intend to restrict the scope of the Clause to the form of
congressional recess then prevalent, or did they intend a
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broader scope permitting the Clause to apply, where ap
propriate, to somewhat changed circumstances? The
Founders knew they were writing a document designed to
apply to ever-changing circumstances over centuries.
After all, a Constitution is “intended to endure for ages to
come,” and must adapt itself to a future that can only be
“seen dimly,” if at all. McCulloch, 4 Wheat., at 415. We
therefore think the Framers likely did intend the Clause
to apply to a new circumstance that so clearly falls within
its essential purposes, where doing so is consistent with
the Clause’s language.
Second, some argue that the intra-session interpretation
permits the President to make “illogic[ally]” long recess
appointments. Brief for Respondent Noel Canning 13;
post, at 10 (SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment). A recess
appointment made between Congress’ annual sessions
would permit the appointee to serve for about a year, i.e.,
until the “end” of the “next” Senate “session.” Art. II, §2,
cl. 3. But an intra-session appointment made at the be
ginning or in the middle of a formal session could permit
the appointee to serve for 1½ or almost 2 years (until the
end of the following formal session).
We agree that the intra-session interpretation permits
somewhat longer recess appointments, but we do not agree
that this consequence is “illogical.” A President who
makes a recess appointment will often also seek to make a
regular appointment, nominating the appointee and secur
ing ordinary Senate confirmation. And the Clause ensures
that the President and Senate always have at least a full
session to go through the nomination and confirmation
process. That process may take several months. See
O’Connell, Vacant Offices: Delays in Staffing Top Agency
Positions, 82 S. Cal. L. Rev. 913, 967 (2009) (from 1987 to
2005 the nomination and confirmation process took an
average of 236 days for noncabinet agency heads). A
recess appointment that lasts somewhat longer than a
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year will ensure the President the continued assistance of
subordinates that the Clause permits him to obtain while
he and the Senate select a regular appointee. An ap
pointment should last until the Senate has “an opportu
nity to act on the subject,” Story, §1551, at 410, and the
Clause embodies a determination that a full session is
needed to select and vet a replacement.
Third, the Court of Appeals believed that application of
the Clause to intra-session recesses would introduce
“vagueness” into a Clause that was otherwise clear. 705
F. 3d, at 504. One can find problems of uncertainty, how
ever, either way. In 1867, for example, President Andrew
Johnson called a special session of Congress, which took
place during a lengthy intra-session recess. Consider the
period of time that fell just after the conclusion of that
special session. Did that period remain an intra-session
recess, or did it become an inter-session recess? Histori
ans disagree about the answer. Compare Hartnett, 26
Cardozo L. Rev., at 408–409, with Brief for Constitutional
Law Scholars as Amici Curiae 23–24.
Or suppose that Congress adjourns sine die, but it does
so conditionally, so that the leadership can call the mem
bers back into session when “the public interest shall
warrant it.” E.g., 155 Cong. Rec. 33429 (2009); 152 Cong.
Rec. 23731–23732 (2006); 150 Cong. Rec. 25925–25926
(2004). If the Senate Majority Leader were to reconvene
the Senate, how would we characterize the preceding
recess? Is it still inter-session? On the narrower interpre
tation the label matters; on the broader it does not.
The greater interpretive problem is determining how
long a recess must be in order to fall within the Clause. Is
a break of a week, or a day, or an hour too short to count
as a “recess”? The Clause itself does not say. And
JUSTICE SCALIA claims that this silence itself shows that
the Framers intended the Clause to apply only to an inter
session recess. Post, at 12–13.
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We disagree. For one thing, the most likely reason the
Framers did not place a textual floor underneath the word
“recess” is that they did not foresee the need for one. They
might have expected that the Senate would meet for a
single session lasting at most half a year. The Federalist
No. 84, at 596 (A. Hamilton). And they might not have
anticipated that intra-session recesses would become
lengthier and more significant than inter-session ones.
The Framers’ lack of clairvoyance on that point is not
dispositive. Unlike JUSTICE SCALIA, we think it most
consistent with our constitutional structure to presume
that the Framers would have allowed intra-session recess
appointments where there was a long history of such
practice.
Moreover, the lack of a textual floor raises a problem
that plagues both interpretations—JUSTICE SCALIA’s and
ours. Today a brief inter-session recess is just as possible
as a brief intra-session recess. And though JUSTICE
SCALIA says that the “notion that the Constitution em
powers the President to make unilateral appointments
every time the Senate takes a half-hour lunch break is so
absurd as to be self-refuting,” he must immediately con
cede (in a footnote) that the President “can make recess
appointments during any break between sessions, no
matter how short.” Post, at 11, 15, n. 4 (emphasis added).
Even the Solicitor General, arguing for a broader inter
pretation, acknowledges that there is a lower limit appli
cable to both kinds of recess. He argues that the lower
limit should be three days by analogy to the Adjournments
Clause of the Constitution. Tr. of Oral Arg. 11. That
Clause says: “Neither House, during the Session of Con
gress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for
more than three days.” Art. I, §5, cl. 4.
We agree with the Solicitor General that a 3-day recess
would be too short. (Under Senate practice, “Sunday is
generally not considered a day,” and so is not counted for
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purposes of the Adjournments Clause. S. Doc. No. 101–28,
F. Riddick & A. Frumin, Riddick’s Senate Procedure:
Precedents and Practices 1265 (hereinafter Riddick’s).)
The Adjournments Clause reflects the fact that a 3-day
break is not a significant interruption of legislative busi
ness. As the Solicitor General says, it is constitutionally
de minimis. Brief for Petitioner 18. A Senate recess that
is so short that it does not require the consent of the
House is not long enough to trigger the President’s recess
appointment power.
That is not to say that the President may make recess
appointments during any recess that is “more than three
days.” Art. I, §5, cl. 4. The Recess Appointments Clause
seeks to permit the Executive Branch to function smoothly
when Congress is unavailable. And though Congress has
taken short breaks for almost 200 years, and there have
been many thousands of recess appointments in that time,
we have not found a single example of a recess ap
pointment made during an intra-session recess that was
shorter than 10 days. Nor has the Solicitor General. Reply
Brief 23. Indeed, the Office of Legal Counsel once infor
mally advised against making a recess appointment dur
ing a 6-day intra-session recess. 3 Op. OLC, at 315–316.
The lack of examples suggests that the recess
appointment power is not needed in that context. (The
length of a recess is “ordinarily calculated by counting the
calendar days running from the day after the recess begins
and including the day the recess ends.” 36 Op. OLC, at
___, n. 1 (citation omitted).)
There are a few historical examples of recess appoint
ments made during inter-session recesses shorter than 10
days. We have already discussed President Theodore
Roosevelt’s appointments during the instantaneous, “ficti
tious” recess. President Truman also made a recess ap
pointment to the Civil Aeronautics Board during a 3-day
inter-session recess. Hogue, Recess Appointments: Fre
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quently Asked Questions, at 5–6. President Taft made a
few appointments during a 9-day recess following his
inauguration, and President Lyndon Johnson made sev-
eral appointments during an 8-day recess several weeks
after assuming office. Hogue, The Law: Recess Appoint-
ments to Article III Courts, 34 Presidential Studies Q.
656, 671 (2004); 106 S. Exec. J. 2 (1964); 40 S. Exec. J. 12
(1909). There may be others of which we are unaware.
But when considered against 200 years of settled practice,
we regard these few scattered examples as anomalies. We
therefore conclude, in light of historical practice, that a
recess of more than 3 days but less than 10 days is pre-
sumptively too short to fall within the Clause. We add the
word “presumptively” to leave open the possibility that
some very unusual circumstance—a national catastrophe,
for instance, that renders the Senate unavailable but calls
for an urgent response—could demand the exercise of the
recess-appointment power during a shorter break. (It
should go without saying—except that JUSTICE SCALIA
compels us to say it—that political opposition in the Sen-
ate would not qualify as an unusual circumstance.)
In sum, we conclude that the phrase “the recess” applies
to both intra-session and inter-session recesses. If a Sen-
ate recess is so short that it does not require the consent of
the House, it is too short to trigger the Recess Appoint-
ments Clause. See Art. I, §5, cl. 4. And a recess lasting
less than 10 days is presumptively too short as well.
IV
The second question concerns the scope of the phrase
“vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Sen-
ate.” Art. II, §2, cl. 3 (emphasis added). All agree that the
phrase applies to vacancies that initially occur during a
recess. But does it also apply to vacancies that initially
occur before a recess and continue to exist during the
recess? In our view the phrase applies to both kinds of
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vacancy.
We believe that the Clause’s language, read literally,
permits, though it does not naturally favor, our broader
interpretation. We concede that the most natural mean
ing of “happens” as applied to a “vacancy” (at least to a
modern ear) is that the vacancy “happens” when it ini
tially occurs. See 1 Johnson 913 (defining “happen” in
relevant part as meaning “[t]o fall out; to chance; to come
to pass”). But that is not the only possible way to use the
word.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that the Clause is “certainly
susceptible of [two] constructions.” Letter to Wilson Cary
Nicholas (Jan. 26, 1802), in 36 Papers of Thomas Jefferson
433 (B. Oberg ed., 2009). It “may mean ‘vacancies that
may happen to be’ or ‘may happen to fall’ ” during a recess.
Ibid. Jefferson used the phrase in the first sense when he
wrote to a job seeker that a particular position was una
vailable, but that he (Jefferson) was “happy that another
vacancy happens wherein I can . . . avail the public of your
integrity & talents,” for “the office of Treasurer of the US.
is vacant by the resignation of mr Meredith.” Letter to
Thomas Tudor Tucker (Oct. 31, 1801), in 35 id., at 530 (B.
Oberg ed. 2008) (emphasis added). See also Laws Passed
by the Legislature of Florida, No. 31, An Act to Organize
and Regulate the Militia of the Territory of Florida §13,
H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 72, 27th Cong., 3d Sess., 22 (1842)
(“[W]hen any vacancy shall take place in the office of any
lieutenant colonel, it shall be the duty of the colonel of the
regiment in which such vacancy may happen to order an
election to be held at the several precincts in the battalion
in which such vacancy may happen” (emphasis added)).
Similarly, when Attorney General William Wirt advised
President Monroe to follow the broader interpretation, he
wrote that the “expression seems not perfectly clear. It
may mean ‘happen to take place:’ that is, ‘to originate,’ ” or
it “may mean, also, without violence to the sense, ‘happen
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to exist.’ ” 1 Op. Atty. Gen. 631, 631–632 (1823). The
broader interpretation, he added, is “most accordant with”
the Constitution’s “reason and spirit.” Id., at 632.
We can still understand this earlier use of “happen” if
we think of it used together with another word that, like
“vacancy,” can refer to a continuing state, say, a financial
crisis. A statute that gives the President authority to act
in respect to “any financial crisis that may happen during
his term” can easily be interpreted to include crises that
arise before, and continue during, that term. Perhaps that
is why the Oxford English Dictionary defines “happen” in
part as “chance to be,” rather than “chance to occur.” 6
OED 1096 (emphasis added); see also 19 OED 383 (defin
ing “vacancy” as the “condition of an office or post being
. . . vacant”).
In any event, the linguistic question here is not whether
the phrase can be, but whether it must be, read more
narrowly. The question is whether the Clause is ambigu
ous. The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U. S., at 690. And the
broader reading, we believe, is at least a permissible
reading of a “ ‘doubtful’ ” phrase. Ibid. We consequently go
on to consider the Clause’s purpose and historical practice.
The Clause’s purpose strongly supports the broader
interpretation. That purpose is to permit the President to
obtain the assistance of subordinate officers when the
Senate, due to its recess, cannot confirm them. Attorney
General Wirt clearly described how the narrower interpre
tation would undermine this purpose:
“Put the case of a vacancy occurring in an office, held
in a distant part of the country, on the last day of the
Senate’s session. Before the vacancy is made known
to the President, the Senate rises. The office may be
an important one; the vacancy may paralyze a whole
line of action in some essential branch of our internal
police; the public interests may imperiously demand
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that it shall be immediately filled. But the vacancy
happened to occur during the session of the Senate;
and if the President’s power is to be limited to such
vacancies only as happen to occur during the recess of
the Senate, the vacancy in the case put must continue,
however ruinous the consequences may be to the pub
lic.” 1 Op. Atty. Gen., at 632.
Examples are not difficult to imagine: An ambassadorial
post falls vacant too soon before the recess begins for the
President to appoint a replacement; the Senate rejects a
President’s nominee just before a recess, too late to select
another. Wirt explained that the “substantial purpose of
the constitution was to keep these offices filled,” and “if
the President shall not have the power to fill a vacancy
thus circumstanced, . . . the substance of the constitution
will be sacrificed to a dubious construction of its letter.”
Ibid. Thus the broader construction, encompassing vacan
cies that initially occur before the beginning of a recess, is
the “only construction of the constitution which is compat
ible with its spirit, reason, and purposes; while, at the
same time, it offers no violence to its language.” Id., at
633.
We do not agree with JUSTICE SCALIA’s suggestion that
the Framers would have accepted the catastrophe envi
sioned by Wirt because Congress can always provide for
acting officers, see 5 U. S. C. §3345, and the President can
always convene a special session of Congress, see U. S.
Const., Art. II, §3. Acting officers may have less authority
than Presidential appointments. 6 Op. OLC 119, 121
(1982). Moreover, to rely on acting officers would lessen
the President’s ability to staff the Executive Branch with
people of his own choosing, and thereby limit the Presi
dent’s control and political accountability. Cf. Free Enter-
prise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Bd.,
561 U. S. 477, 497–498 (2010). Special sessions are
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burdensome (and would have been especially so at the
time of the founding). The point of the Recess Appoint
ments Clause was to avoid reliance on these inadequate
expedients.
At the same time, we recognize one important purpose
related consideration that argues in the opposite direction.
A broad interpretation might permit a President to avoid
Senate confirmations as a matter of course. If the Clause
gives the President the power to “fill up all vacancies” that
occur before, and continue to exist during, the Senate’s
recess, a President might not submit any nominations to
the Senate. He might simply wait for a recess and then
provide all potential nominees with recess appointments.
He might thereby routinely avoid the constitutional need
to obtain the Senate’s “advice and consent.”
Wirt thought considerations of character and politics
would prevent Presidents from abusing the Clause in this
way. 1 Op. Atty. Gen., at 634. He might have added that
such temptations should not often arise. It is often less
desirable for a President to make a recess appointment. A
recess appointee only serves a limited term. That, com
bined with the lack of Senate approval, may diminish the
recess appointee’s ability, as a practical matter, to get a
controversial job done. And even where the President and
Senate are at odds over politically sensitive appointments,
compromise is normally possible. Indeed, the 1940 Pay
Act amendments represent a general compromise, for they
foresee payment of salaries to recess appointees where
vacancies occur before the recess began but not too long
before (namely, within 30 days before). 5 U. S. C.
§5503(a)(1); see infra, at 32. Moreover, the Senate, like
the President, has institutional “resources,” including
political resources, “available to protect and assert its
interests.” Goldwater v. Carter, 444 U. S. 996, 1004 (1979)
(Rehnquist, J., concurring in judgment). In an unusual
instance, where a matter is important enough to the Sen
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ate, that body can remain in session, preventing recess
appointments by refusing to take a recess. See Part V,
infra. In any event, the Executive Branch has adhered to
the broader interpretation for two centuries, and Senate
confirmation has always remained the norm for officers
that require it.
While we concede that both interpretations carry with
them some risk of undesirable consequences, we believe
the narrower interpretation risks undermining constitu-
tionally conferred powers more seriously and more often.
It would prevent the President from making any recess
appointment that arose before a recess, no matter who the
official, no matter how dire the need, no matter how un-
controversial the appointment, and no matter how late in
the session the office fell vacant. Overall, like Attorney
General Wirt, we believe the broader interpretation more
consistent with the Constitution’s “reason and spirit.” 1
Op. Atty. Gen., at 632.
Historical practice over the past 200 years strongly
favors the broader interpretation. The tradition of apply-
ing the Clause to pre-recess vacancies dates at least to
President James Madison. There is no undisputed record
of Presidents George Washington, John Adams, or Thomas
Jefferson making such an appointment, though the Solici-
tor General believes he has found records showing that
Presidents Washington and Jefferson did so. We know
that Edmund Randolph, Washington’s Attorney General,
favored a narrow reading of the Clause. Randolph be-
lieved that the “Spirit of the Constitution favors the par-
ticipation of the Senate in all appointments,” though he
did not address—let alone answer—the powerful purpos-
ive and structural arguments subsequently made by At-
torney General Wirt. See Edmund Randolph’s Opinion on
Recess Appointments (July 7, 1792), in 24 Papers of
Thomas Jefferson 166 (J. Catanzariti ed. 1990).
President Adams seemed to endorse the broader view of
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the Clause in writing, though we are not aware of any
appointments he made in keeping with that view. See
Letter to J. McHenry (Apr. 16, 1799), in 8 Works of John
Adams 632–633 (C. Adams ed. 1853). His Attorney Gen
eral, Charles Lee, later informed Jefferson that, in the
Adams administration, “whenever an office became vacant
so short a time before Congress rose, as not to give an
opportunity of enquiring for a proper character, they let it
lie always till recess.” 36 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 433.
We know that President Jefferson thought that the broad
interpretation was linguistically supportable, though his
actual practice is not clear. But the evidence suggests
that James Madison—as familiar as anyone with the
workings of the Constitutional Convention—appointed
Theodore Gaillard to replace a district judge who had left
office before a recess began. Hartnett, 26 Cardozo L. Rev.,
at 400–401. It also appears that in 1815 Madison signed a
bill that created two new offices prior to a recess which he
then filled later during the recess. See Act of Mar. 3, ch.
95, 3 Stat. 235; S. J. 13th Cong., 3d Sess., 689–690 (1815);
3 S. Exec. J. 19 (1828) (for Monday, Jan. 8, 1816). He also
made recess appointments to “territorial” United States
attorney and marshal positions, both of which had been
created when the Senate was in session more than two
years before. Act of Feb. 27, 1813, ch. 35, 2 Stat. 806; 3 S.
Exec. J. 19. JUSTICE SCALIA refers to “written evidence of
Madison’s own beliefs,” post, at 36, but in fact we have no
direct evidence of what President Madison believed. We
only know that he declined to make one appointment to a
pre-recess vacancy after his Secretary of War advised him
that he lacked the power. On the other hand, he did
apparently make at least five other appointments to pre
recess vacancies, as JUSTICE SCALIA does not dispute.
The next President, James Monroe, received and pre
sumably acted upon Attorney General Wirt’s advice,
namely that “all vacancies which, from any casualty,
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happen to exist at a time when the Senate cannot be
consulted as to filling them, may be temporarily filled by
the President.” 1 Op. Atty. Gen., at 633. Nearly every
subsequent Attorney General to consider the question
throughout the Nation’s history has thought the same.
E.g., 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 525, 528 (1832); 7 Op. Atty. Gen.
186, 223 (1855); 10 Op. Atty. Gen. 356, 356–357 (1862); 12
Op. Atty. Gen. 32, 33 (1866); 12 Op. Atty. Gen., at 452; 14
Op. Atty. Gen. 562, 564 (1875); 15 Op. Atty. Gen. 207
(1877); 16 Op. Atty. Gen. 522, 524 (1880); 17 Op. Atty.
Gen. 521 (1883); 18 Op. Atty. Gen. 29, 29–30 (1884); 19
Op. Atty. Gen. 261, 262 (1889); 26 Op. Atty. Gen. 234,
234–235 (1907); 30 Op. Atty. Gen. 314, 315 (1914); 41 Op.
Atty. Gen. 463, 465 (1960); 3 Op. OLC 314 (1979); 6 Op.
OLC 585, 586 (1982); 20 Op. OLC 124, 161 (1996); 36 Op.
OLC ___ (2012). Indeed, as early as 1862, Attorney Gen
eral Bates advised President Lincoln that his power to fill
pre-recess vacancies was “settled . . . as far . . . as a consti
tutional question can be settled,” 10 Op. Atty. Gen., at
356, and a century later Acting Attorney General Walsh
gave President Eisenhower the same advice “without any
doubt,” 41 Op. Atty. Gen., at 466.
This power is important. The Congressional Research
Service is “unaware of any official source of information
tracking the dates of vacancies in federal offices.” The
Noel Canning Decision 3, n. 6. Nonetheless, we have
enough information to believe that the Presidents since
Madison have made many recess appointments filling
vacancies that initially occurred prior to a recess. As we
have just said, nearly every 19th- and 20th-century Attor
ney General expressing a view on the matter has agreed
with William Wirt, and Presidents tend to follow the legal
advice of their chief legal officers. Moreover, the Solicitor
General has compiled a list of 102 (mostly uncontested)
recess appointments made by Presidents going back to the
founding. App. to Brief for Petitioner 65a–89a. Given the
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difficulty of finding accurate information about vacancy
dates, that list is undoubtedly far smaller than the actual
number. No one disputes that every President since
James Buchanan has made recess appointments to pre
existing vacancies.
Common sense also suggests that many recess appoin
tees filled vacancies that arose before the recess began.
We have compared the list of intra-session recess ap
pointments in the Solicitor General’s brief with the chart
of congressional recesses. Where a specific date of ap
pointment can be ascertained, more than half of those
intra-session appointments were made within two weeks
of the beginning of a recess. That short window strongly
suggests that many of the vacancies initially arose prior to
the recess. See App. to Brief for Petitioner 1a–64a; Ap
pendix A, infra. Thus, it is not surprising that the Con
gressional Research Service, after examining the vacancy
dates associated with a random sample of 24 inter-session
recess appointments since 1981, concluded that “[i]n most
of the 24 cases, the preponderance of evidence indicated
that the vacancy arose prior to the recess during which the
appointment was made.” The Noel Canning Decision 3.
Further, with research assistance from the Supreme Court
Library, we have examined a random sample of the recess
appointments made by our two most recent Presidents,
and have found that almost all of those appointments
filled pre-recess vacancies: Of a sample of 21 recess ap
pointments, 18 filled pre-recess vacancies and only 1 filled
a vacancy that arose during the recess in which he was
appointed. The precise date on which 2 of the vacancies
arose could not be determined. See Appendix B, infra.
Taken together, we think it is a fair inference that a large
proportion of the recess appointments in the history of the
Nation have filled pre-existing vacancies.
Did the Senate object? Early on, there was some spo
radic disagreement with the broad interpretation. In 1814
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Senator Gore said that if “the vacancy happen at another
time, it is not the case described by the Constitution.” 26
Annals of Cong. 653. In 1822 a Senate committee, while
focusing on the President’s power to fill a new vacancy
created by statute, used language to the same effect. 38
id., at 489, 500. And early Congresses enacted statutes
authorizing certain recess appointments, see post, at 31, a
fact that may or may not suggest they accepted the nar
rower interpretation of the Clause. Most of those stat
utes—including the one passed by the First Congress—
authorized appointments to newly created offices, and may
have been addressed to the separate question of whether
new offices are vacancies within the meaning of the
Clause. See Letter from Alexander Hamilton to James
McHenry (May 3, 1799), in 23 Papers of Alexander Hamil
ton 94 (H. Syrett ed. 1976) (“Vacancy is a relative term,
and presupposes that the Office has been once filled”);
Reply Brief 17. In any event, by 1862 Attorney General
Bates could still refer to “the unbroken acquiescence of the
Senate” in support of the broad interpretation. 10 Op.
Atty. Gen., at 356.
Then in 1863 the Senate Judiciary Committee disagreed
with the broad interpretation. It issued a report conclud
ing that a vacancy “must have its inceptive point after one
session has closed and before another session has begun.”
S. Rep. No. 80, 37th Cong., 3d Sess., p. 3. And the Senate
then passed the Pay Act, which provided that “no money
shall be paid . . . as a salary, to any person appointed
during the recess of the Senate, to fill a vacancy . . . which
. . . existed while the Senate was in session.” Act of Feb. 9,
1863, §2, 12 Stat. 646. Relying upon the floor statement of
a single Senator, JUSTICE SCALIA suggests that the pas
sage of the Pay Act indicates that the Senate as a whole
endorsed the position in the 1863 Report. But the circum
stances are more equivocal. During the floor debate on the
bill, not a single Senator referred to the Report. Cong.
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Globe, 37th Cong., 3d Sess. 564–565 (1863). Indeed, Sena
tor Trumbull, who introduced the Pay Act, acknowledged
that there was disagreement about the underlying consti
tutional question. Id., at 565 (“[S]ome other persons think
he has that power”). Further, if a majority of the Senate
had believed appointments to pre-recess vacancies were
unconstitutional, it could have attempted to do far more
than temporarily dock the appointees’ pay. Cf. Tenure of
Office Act of 1867, §5, 14 Stat. 431 (making it a federal
crime for “any person” to “accept any appointment” in
certain circumstances).
In any event, the Senate subsequently abandoned its
hostility. In the debate preceding the 1905 Senate Report
regarding President Roosevelt’s “constructive” recess
appointments, Senator Tillman—who chaired the Com
mittee that authored the 1905 Report—brought up the
1863 Report, and another Senator responded: “Whatever
that report may have said in 1863, I do not think that has
been the view the Senate has taken” of the issue. 38 Cong.
Rec. 1606 (1904). Senator Tillman then agreed that “the
Senate has acquiesced” in the President’s “power to fill”
pre-recess vacancies. Ibid. And Senator Tillman’s 1905
Report described the Clause’s purpose in terms closely
echoing Attorney General Wirt. 1905 Senate Report, at 2
(“Its sole purpose was to render it certain that at all times
there should be, whether the Senate was in session or not,
an officer for every office” (emphasis added)).
In 1916 the Senate debated whether to pay a recess
appointee who had filled a pre-recess vacancy and had not
subsequently been confirmed. Both Senators to address
the question—one on each side of the payment debate—
agreed that the President had the constitutional power to
make the appointment, and the Senate voted to pay the
appointee for his service. 53 Cong. Rec. 4291–4299; 39
Stat. 818–819. In 1927 the Comptroller General, a legisla
tive officer, wrote that “there is no question but that the
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President has authority to make a recess appointment to
fill any vacancy,” including those that “existed while the
Senate was in session.” 7 Comp. Gen. 10, 11 (emphasis
added). Meanwhile, Presidents continued to make ap
pointments to pre-recess vacancies. The Solicitor General
has identified 40 between 1863 and 1940, but that number
is clearly not comprehensive. See, e.g., 32 Op. Atty. Gen.
271–272 (1920) (listing 5 appointments that are not in the
Solicitor General’s appendix); Recess Appointments,
Washington Post, July 7, 1880, p. 1 (noting that President
Hayes had made “quite a number of appointments” to pre
recess vacancies).
Then in 1940 Congress amended the Pay Act to author
ize salary payments (with some exceptions) where (1) the
“vacancy arose within thirty days prior to the termination
of the session,” (2) “at the termination of the session” a
nomination was “pending,” or (3) a nominee was “rejected
by the Senate within thirty days prior to the termination
of the session.” Act of July 11, 54 Stat. 751 (codified, as
amended, at 5 U. S. C. §5503). All three circumstances
concern a vacancy that did not initially occur during a
recess but happened to exist during that recess. By pay
ing salaries to this kind of recess appointee, the 1940
Senate (and later Senates) in effect supported the Presi
dent’s interpretation of the Clause.
The upshot is that the President has consistently and
frequently interpreted the Recess Appointments Clause to
apply to vacancies that initially occur before, but continue
to exist during, a recess of the Senate. The Senate as a
body has not countered this practice for nearly three
quarters of a century, perhaps longer. See A. Amar, The
Unwritten Constitution 576–577, n. 16 (2012) (for nearly
200 years “the overwhelming mass of actual practice”
supports the President’s interpretation); Mistretta v.
United States, 488 U. S. 361, 401 (1989) (a “200–year
tradition” can “ ‘give meaning’ to the Constitution” (quot
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ing Youngstown, 343 U. S., at 610 (Frankfurter, J., con-
curring))). The tradition is long enough to entitle the
practice “to great regard in determining the true construc-
tion” of the constitutional provision. The Pocket Veto Case,
279 U. S., at 690. And we are reluctant to upset this
traditional practice where doing so would seriously shrink
the authority that Presidents have believed existed and
have exercised for so long.
In light of some linguistic ambiguity, the basic purpose
of the Clause, and the historical practice we have de-
scribed, we conclude that the phrase “all vacancies” in-
cludes vacancies that come into existence while the Senate
is in session.
V
The third question concerns the calculation of the length
of the Senate’s “recess.” On December 17, 2011, the Sen-
ate by unanimous consent adopted a resolution to convene
“pro forma session[s]” only, with “no business . . . trans-
acted,” on every Tuesday and Friday from December 20,
2011, through January 20, 2012. 2011 S. J. 923. At the
end of each pro forma session, the Senate would “adjourn
until” the following pro forma session. Ibid. During that
period, the Senate convened and adjourned as agreed. It
held pro forma sessions on December 20, 23, 27, and 30,
and on January 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, and 20; and at the end of
each pro forma session, it adjourned until the time and
date of the next. Id., at 923–924; 158 Cong. Rec. S1–S11.
The President made the recess appointments before us
on January 4, 2012, in between the January 3 and the
January 6 pro forma sessions. We must determine the
significance of these sessions—that is, whether, for pur-
poses of the Clause, we should treat them as periods when
the Senate was in session or as periods when it was in
recess. If the former, the period between January 3 and
January 6 was a 3-day recess, which is too short to trigger
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the President’s recess-appointment power, see supra, at
19–21. If the latter, however, then the 3-day period was
part of a much longer recess during which the President
did have the power to make recess appointments, see ibid.
The Solicitor General argues that we must treat the
pro forma sessions as periods of recess. He says that these
“sessions” were sessions in name only because the Senate
was in recess as a functional matter. The Senate, he
contends, remained in a single, unbroken recess from
January 3, when the second session of the 112th Congress
began by operation of the Twentieth Amendment, until
January 23, when the Senate reconvened to do regular
business.
In our view, however, the pro forma sessions count as
sessions, not as periods of recess. We hold that, for pur
poses of the Recess Appointments Clause, the Senate is in
session when it says it is, provided that, under its own
rules, it retains the capacity to transact Senate business.
The Senate met that standard here.
The standard we apply is consistent with the Constitu
tion’s broad delegation of authority to the Senate to de
termine how and when to conduct its business. The Con
stitution explicitly empowers the Senate to “determine the
Rules of its Proceedings.” Art. I, §5, cl. 2. And we have
held that “all matters of method are open to the determi
nation” of the Senate, as long as there is “a reasonable
relation between the mode or method of proceeding estab
lished by the rule and the result which is sought to be
attained” and the rule does not “ignore constitutional
restraints or violate fundamental rights.” United States v.
Ballin, 144 U. S. 1, 5 (1892).
In addition, the Constitution provides the Senate with
extensive control over its schedule. There are only limited
exceptions. See Amdt. 20, §2 (Congress must meet once a
year on January 3, unless it specifies another day by law);
Art. II, §3 (Senate must meet if the President calls it into
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special session); Art. I, §5, cl. 4 (neither House may ad
journ for more than three days without consent of the
other). See also Art. II, §3 (“[I]n Case of Disagreement
between [the Houses], with Respect to the Time of Ad
journment, [the President] may adjourn them to such
Time as he shall think proper”). The Constitution thus
gives the Senate wide latitude to determine whether and
when to have a session, as well as how to conduct the
session. This suggests that the Senate’s determination
about what constitutes a session should merit great
respect.
Furthermore, this Court’s precedents reflect the breadth
of the power constitutionally delegated to the Senate. We
generally take at face value the Senate’s own report of its
actions. When, for example, “the presiding officers” of the
House and Senate sign an enrolled bill (and the President
“approve[s]” it), “its authentication as a bill that has
passed Congress should be deemed complete and unim
peachable.” Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark, 143 U. S. 649,
672 (1892). By the same principle, when the Journal of
the Senate indicates that a quorum was present, under a
valid Senate rule, at the time the Senate passed a bill, we
will not consider an argument that a quorum was not, in
fact, present. Ballin, supra, at 9. The Constitution re
quires the Senate to keep its Journal, Art. I, §5, cl. 3
(“Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings . . .”),
and “if reference may be had to” it, “it must be assumed to
speak the truth,” Ballin, supra, at 4.
For these reasons, we conclude that we must give great
weight to the Senate’s own determination of when it is and
when it is not in session. But our deference to the Senate
cannot be absolute. When the Senate is without the ca-
pacity to act, under its own rules, it is not in session even
if it so declares. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 69 (acknowledgment
by counsel for amici Senators that if the Senate had left
the Capitol and “effectively given up . . . the business of
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legislating” then it might be in recess, even if it said it was
not). In that circumstance, the Senate is not simply un
likely or unwilling to act upon nominations of the Presi
dent. It is unable to do so. The purpose of the Clause is to
ensure the continued functioning of the Federal Govern
ment while the Senate is unavailable. See supra, at 5–6.
This purpose would count for little were we to treat the
Senate as though it were in session even when it lacks the
ability to provide its “advice and consent.” Art. II, §2, cl. 2.
Accordingly, we conclude that when the Senate declares
that it is in session and possesses the capacity, under its
own rules, to conduct business, it is in session for purposes
of the Clause.
Applying this standard, we find that the pro forma
sessions were sessions for purposes of the Clause. First,
the Senate said it was in session. The Journal of the
Senate and the Congressional Record indicate that the
Senate convened for a series of twice-weekly “sessions”
from December 20 through January 20. 2011 S. J. 923–
924; 158 Cong. Rec. S1–S11. (The Journal of the Senate
for 2012 has not yet been published.) And these reports of
the Senate “must be assumed to speak the truth.” Ballin,
supra, at 4.
Second, the Senate’s rules make clear that during its
pro forma sessions, despite its resolution that it would
conduct no business, the Senate retained the power to
conduct business. During any pro forma session, the
Senate could have conducted business simply by passing a
unanimous consent agreement. See Riddick’s 1313. The
Senate in fact conducts much of its business through
unanimous consent. Id., at 1311–1312. Senate rules
presume that a quorum is present unless a present Sena
tor questions it. Id., at 1041–1042. And when the Senate
has a quorum, an agreement is unanimously passed if,
upon its proposal, no present Senator objects. Id., at
1329–1330. It is consequently unsurprising that the
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Senate has enacted legislation during pro forma sessions
even when it has said that no business will be transacted.
Indeed, the Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent
during the second pro forma session after its December 17
adjournment. 2011 S. J. 924. And that bill quickly be
came law. Pub. L. 112–78, 125 Stat. 1280.
By way of contrast, we do not see how the Senate could
conduct business during a recess. It could terminate the
recess and then, when in session, pass a bill. But in that
case, of course, the Senate would no longer be in recess. It
would be in session. And that is the crucial point. Senate
rules make clear that, once in session, the Senate can act
even if it has earlier said that it would not.
The Solicitor General argues that more is required. He
contends that what counts is not the Senate’s capacity to
conduct business but what the Senate actually does (or
here, did) during its pro forma sessions. And he looks for
support to the functional definition of “recess” set forth in
the 1905 Senate Report discussed above. See supra, at 14.
That Report describes a “recess” of the Senate as
“the period of time . . . when its members owe no duty
of attendance; when its Chamber is empty; when, be
cause of its absence, it can not receive communica
tions from the President or participate as a body in
making appointments.” 1905 Senate Report, at 2.
Even were we, for argument’s sake, to accept all of these
criteria as authoritative, they would here be met. Taking
the last criterion first, could the Senate, during its pro
forma sessions, “participate as a body in making appoint
ments”? It could. It could confirm nominees by unani
mous consent, just as it passed the bill mentioned above.
See Riddick’s 1313.
Could the Senate “receive communications from the
President”? It could. The Congressional Record indicates
that the Senate “received” a message from the President
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on January 12, during a 3-day adjournment between two
pro forma sessions. See 158 Cong. Rec. S37 (Jan. 23,
2012). If the Senate could receive Presidential messages
between two pro forma sessions, it could receive them
during a pro forma session.
Was the Senate’s Chamber “empty”? It was not. By its
official rules, the Senate operates under the presumption
that a quorum is present until a present Senator suggests
the absence of a quorum, Riddick’s 1041–1042, and noth
ing in the Journal of the Senate or the Congressional
Record reflects any such suggestion.
Did Senators “owe [a] duty of attendance”? They did.
The Senate’s rules dictate that Senators are under a duty
to attend every session. See Riddick’s 214; Standing Rule
of the Senate VI(2), S. Doc. No. 112–1, p. 5 (2011) (“No
Senator shall absent himself from the service of the Sen
ate without leave”). Nothing excused the Senators from
this duty during the Senate’s pro forma sessions. If any
present Senator had raised a question as to the presence
of a quorum, and by roll call it had become clear that a
quorum was missing, the Senators in attendance could
have directed the Sergeant at Arms to bring in the missing
Senators. Rule VI(4).
The Solicitor General asks us to engage in a more realis
tic appraisal of what the Senate actually did. He argues
that, during the relevant pro forma sessions, business was
not in fact conducted; messages from the President could
not be received in any meaningful way because they could
not be placed before the Senate; the Senate Chamber was,
according to C-SPAN coverage, almost empty; and in
practice attendance was not required. See Brief for Peti
tioner 48–49, 54–55.
We do not believe, however, that engaging in the kind of
factual appraisal that the Solicitor General suggests is
either legally or practically appropriate. From a legal
perspective, this approach would run contrary to prece
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dent instructing us to “respect . . . coequal and independ-
ent departments” by, for example, taking the Senate’s
report of its official action at its word. Field, 143 U. S., at
672; see Ballin, 144 U. S., at 4. From a practical perspec-
tive, judges cannot easily determine such matters as who
is, and who is not, in fact present on the floor during a
particular Senate session. Judicial efforts to engage in
these kinds of inquiries would risk undue judicial interfer-
ence with the functioning of the Legislative Branch.
Finally, the Solicitor General warns that our holding
may “ ‘disrup[t] the proper balance between the coordinate
branches by preventing the Executive Branch from ac-
complishing its constitutionally assigned functions.’ ”
Brief for Petitioner 64 (quoting Morrison v. Olson, 487
U. S. 654, 695 (1988); alteration in original). We do not
see, however, how our holding could significantly alter the
constitutional balance. Most appointments are not contro-
versial and do not produce friction between the branches.
Where political controversy is serious, the Senate unques-
tionably has other methods of preventing recess appoint-
ments. As the Solicitor General concedes, the Senate
could preclude the President from making recess appoint-
ments by holding a series of twice-a-week ordinary (not
pro forma) sessions. And the nature of the business con-
ducted at those ordinary sessions—whether, for example,
Senators must vote on nominations, or may return to
their home States to meet with their constituents—is a
matter for the Senate to decide. The Constitution also
gives the President (if he has enough allies in Congress) a
way to force a recess. Art. II, §3 (“[I]n Case of Disagree-
ment between [the Houses], with Respect to the Time of
Adjournment, [the President] may adjourn them to such
Time as he shall think proper”). Moreover, the President
and Senators engage with each other in many different
ways and have a variety of methods of encouraging each
other to accept their points of view.
40 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Regardless, the Recess Appointments Clause is not
designed to overcome serious institutional friction. It
simply provides a subsidiary method for appointing offi
cials when the Senate is away during a recess. Here, as in
other contexts, friction between the branches is an inevi
table consequence of our constitutional structure. See
Myers, 272 U. S., at 293 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). That
structure foresees resolution not only through judicial
interpretation and compromise among the branches but
also by the ballot box.
VI
The Recess Appointments Clause responds to a struc
tural difference between the Executive and Legislative
Branches: The Executive Branch is perpetually in opera
tion, while the Legislature only acts in intervals separated
by recesses. The purpose of the Clause is to allow the
Executive to continue operating while the Senate is una
vailable. We believe that the Clause’s text, standing
alone, is ambiguous. It does not resolve whether the
President may make appointments during intra-session
recesses, or whether he may fill pre-recess vacancies. But
the broader reading better serves the Clause’s structural
function. Moreover, that broader reading is reinforced by
centuries of history, which we are hesitant to disturb. We
thus hold that the Constitution empowers the President to
fill any existing vacancy during any recess—intra-session
or inter-session—of sufficient length.
JUSTICE SCALIA would render illegitimate thousands of
recess appointments reaching all the way back to the
founding era. More than that: Calling the Clause an
“anachronism,” he would basically read it out of the Con
stitution. Post, at 12. He performs this act of judicial
excision in the name of liberty. We fail to see how excising
the Recess Appointments Clause preserves freedom. In
fact, Alexander Hamilton observed in the very first Feder
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 41
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court
alist Paper that “the vigour of government is essential to
the security of liberty.” The Federalist No. 1, at 5. And
the Framers included the Recess Appointments Clause to
preserve the “vigour of government” at times when an
important organ of Government, the United States Senate,
is in recess. JUSTICE SCALIA’s interpretation of the Clause
would defeat the power of the Clause to achieve that
objective.
The foregoing discussion should refute JUSTICE SCALIA’s
claim that we have “embrace[d]” an “adverse-possession
theory of executive power.” Post, at 48. Instead, as in
all cases, we interpret the Constitution in light of its
text, purposes, and “our whole experience” as a Nation.
Missouri v. Holland, 252 U. S. 416, 433 (1920). And we
look to the actual practice of Government to inform our
interpretation.
Given our answer to the last question before us, we
conclude that the Recess Appointments Clause does not
give the President the constitutional authority to make
the appointments here at issue. Because the Court of
Appeals reached the same ultimate conclusion (though for
reasons we reject), its judgment is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
42 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Appendix A to opinionof the Court
APPENDIXES
A
The following table contains the dates of all the intra
session and inter-session recesses that Congress has taken
since the founding. The information (including the foot
notes) is taken from 2011–2012 Official Congressional
Directory, 112th Cong., 522–539.
SESSIONS OF CONGRESS, 1st–112th CONGRESSES, 1789–2011
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
1st 1 Mar. 4, 1789 Sept. 29, 1789 210
2 Jan. 4, 1790 Aug. 12, 1790 221
3 Dec. 6, 1790 Mar. 3, 1791 88
2d S Mar. 4, 1791 Mar. 4, 1791 1
1 Oct. 24, 1791 May 8, 1792 197
2 Nov. 5, 1792 Mar. 2, 1793 119
3d S Mar. 4, 1793 Mar. 4, 1793 1
1 Dec. 2, 1793 June 9, 1794 190
2 Nov. 3, 1794 Mar. 3, 1795 121
4th S June 8, 1795 June 26, 1795 19
1 Dec. 7, 1795 June 1, 1796 177
2 Dec. 5, 1796 Mar. 3, 1797 89
5th S Mar. 4, 1797 Mar. 4, 1797 1
1–E May 15, 1797 July 10, 1797 57
S July 17, 1798 July 19, 1798 3
2 Nov. 13, 1797 July 16, 1798 246
3 Dec. 3, 1798 Mar. 3, 1799 91
6th 1 Dec. 2, 1799 May 14, 1800 164
2 Nov. 17, 1800 Mar. 3, 1801 107 Dec. 23–Dec. 30, 1800 Dec. 23–Dec. 30, 1800
7th S Mar. 4, 1801 Mar. 5, 1801 2
1 Dec. 7, 1801 May 3, 1802 148
2 Dec. 6, 1802 Mar. 3, 1803 88
8th 1–E Oct. 17, 1803 Mar. 27, 1804 163
2 Nov. 5, 1804 Mar. 3, 1805 119
9th 1 Dec. 2, 1805 Apr. 21, 1806 141
2 Dec. 1, 1806 Mar. 3, 1807 93
10th 1–E Oct. 26, 1807 Apr. 25, 1808 182
2 Nov. 7, 1808 Mar. 3, 1809 117
11th S Mar. 4, 1809 Mar. 7, 1809 4
1 May 22, 1809 June 28, 1809 38
2 Nov. 27, 1809 May 1, 1810 156
3 Dec. 3, 1810 Mar. 3, 1811 91
12th 1–E Nov. 4, 1811 July 6, 1812 245
2 Nov. 2, 1812 Mar. 3, 1813 122
13th 1 May 24, 1813 Aug. 2, 1813 71
2 Dec. 6, 1813 Apr. 18, 1814 134
3–E Sept. 19, 1814 Mar. 3, 1815 166
14th 1 Dec. 4, 1815 Apr. 30, 1816 148
2 Dec. 2, 1816 Mar. 3, 1817 92
15th S Mar. 4, 1817 Mar. 6, 1817 3
1 Dec. 1, 1817 Apr. 20, 1818 141 Dec. 24–Dec. 29, 1817 Dec. 24–Dec. 29, 1817
2 Nov. 16, 1818 Mar. 3, 1819 108
16th 1 Dec. 6, 1819 May 15, 1820 162
2 Nov. 13, 1820 Mar. 3, 1821 111
17th 1 Dec. 3, 1821 May 8, 1822 157
2 Dec. 2, 1822 Mar. 3, 1823 92
18th 1 Dec. 1, 1823 May 27, 1824 178
2 Dec. 6, 1824 Mar. 3, 1825 88
19th S Mar. 4, 1825 Mar. 9, 1825 6
1 Dec. 5, 1825 May 22, 1826 169
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 43
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
2 Dec. 4, 1826 Mar. 3, 1827 90
20th 1 Dec. 3, 1827 May 26, 1828 175
2 Dec. 1, 1828 Mar. 3, 1829 93 Dec. 24–Dec. 29, 1828 Dec. 24–Dec. 29, 1828
21st S Mar. 4, 1829 Mar. 17, 1829 14
1 Dec. 7, 1829 May 31, 1830 176
2 Dec. 6, 1830 Mar. 3, 1831 88
22d 1 Dec. 5, 1831 July 16, 1832 225
2 Dec. 3, 1832 Mar. 2, 1833 91
23d 1 Dec. 2, 1833 June 30, 1834 211
2 Dec. 1, 1834 Mar. 3, 1835 93
24th 1 Dec. 7, 1835 July 4, 1836 211
2 Dec. 5, 1836 Mar. 3, 1837 89
25th S Mar. 4, 1837 Mar. 10, 1837 7
1–E Sept. 4, 1837 Oct. 16, 1837 43
2 Dec. 4, 1837 July 9, 1838 218
3 Dec. 3, 1838 Mar. 3, 1839 91
26th 1 Dec. 2, 1839 July 21, 1840 233
2 Dec. 7, 1840 Mar. 3, 1841 87
27th S Mar. 4, 1841 Mar. 15, 1841 12
1–E May 31, 1841 Sept. 13, 1841 106
2 Dec. 6, 1841 Aug. 31, 1842 269
3 Dec. 5, 1842 Mar. 3, 1843 89
28th 1 Dec. 4, 1843 June 17, 1844 196
2 Dec. 2, 1844 Mar. 3, 1845 92
29th S Mar. 4, 1845 Mar. 20, 1845 17
1 Dec. 1, 1845 Aug. 10, 1846 253
2 Dec. 7, 1846 Mar. 3, 1847 87
30th 1 Dec. 6, 1847 Aug. 14, 1848 254
2 Dec. 4, 1848 Mar. 3, 1849 90
31st S Mar. 5, 1849 Mar. 23, 1849 19
1 Dec. 3, 1849 Sept. 30, 1850 302
2 Dec. 2, 1850 Mar. 3, 1851 92
32d S Mar. 4, 1851 Mar. 13, 1851 10
1 Dec. 1, 1851 Aug. 31, 1852 275
2 Dec. 6, 1852 Mar. 3, 1853 88
33d S Mar. 4, 1853 Apr. 11, 1853 39
1 Dec. 5, 1853 Aug. 7, 1854 246
2 Dec. 4, 1854 Mar. 3, 1855 90
34th 1 Dec. 3, 1855 Aug. 18, 1856 260
2–E Aug. 21, 1856 Aug. 30, 1856 10
3 Dec. 1, 1856 Mar. 3, 1857 93
35th S Mar. 4, 1857 Mar. 14, 1857 11
1 Dec. 7, 1857 June 14, 1858 189 Dec. 23, 1857–Jan. 4, Dec. 23, 1857–Jan. 4,
1858 1858
S June 15, 1858 June 16, 1858 2
2 Dec. 6, 1858 Mar. 3, 1859 88 Dec. 23, 1858–Jan. 4, Dec. 23, 1858–Jan. 4,
1859 1859
36th S Mar. 4, 1859 Mar. 10, 1859 7
1 Dec. 5, 1859 June 25, 1860 202
S June 26, 1860 June 28, 1860 3
2 Dec. 3, 1860 Mar. 3, 1861 93
37th S Mar. 4, 1861 Mar. 28, 1861 25
1–E July 4, 1861 Aug. 6, 1861 34
2 Dec. 2, 1861 July 17, 1862 228
3 Dec. 1, 1862 Mar. 3, 1863 93 Dec. 23, 1862–Jan. 5, Dec. 23, 1862–Jan. 5,
1863 1863
38th S Mar. 4, 1863 Mar. 14, 1863 11
1 Dec. 7, 1863 July 4, 1864 209 Dec. 23, 1863–Jan. 5, Dec. 23, 1863–Jan. 5,
1864 1864
2 Dec. 5, 1864 Mar. 3, 1865 89 Dec. 22, 1864–Jan. 5, Dec. 22, 1864–Jan. 5,
1865 1865
39th S Mar. 4, 1865 Mar. 11, 1865 8
1 Dec. 4, 1865 July 28, 1866 237 Dec. 6–Dec. 11, 1865 Dec. 6–Dec. 11, 1865
Dec. 21, 1865–Jan. 5, Dec. 21, 1865–Jan. 5,
1866 1866
2 Dec. 3, 1866 Mar. 3, 1867 91 Dec. 20, 1866–Jan. 3, Dec. 20, 1866–Jan. 3,
1867 1867
40th 1 Mar. 4, 1867 Dec. 1, 1867 273 Mar. 30–July 3, 1867 Mar. 30–July 3, 1867
July 20–Nov. 21, 1867 July 20–Nov. 21, 1867
S Apr. 1, 1867 Apr. 20, 1867 20
2 Dec. 2, 1867 Nov. 10, 1868 345 Dec. 20, 1867–Jan. 6, Dec. 20, 1867–Jan. 6,
1868 1868
July 27–Sept. 21, 1868 July 27–Sept. 21, 1868
44 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
Sept. 21–Oct. 16, 1868 Sept. 21–Oct. 16, 1868
Oct. 16–Nov. 10, 1868 Oct. 16–Nov. 10, 1868
3 Dec. 7, 1868 Mar. 3, 1869 87 Dec. 21, 1868–Jan. 5, Dec. 21, 1868–Jan. 5,
1869 1869
41st 1 Mar. 4, 1869 Apr. 10, 1869 38
S Apr. 12, 1869 Apr. 22, 1869 11
2 Dec. 6, 1869 July 15, 1870 222 Dec. 22, 1869–Jan. 10, Dec. 22, 1869–Jan. 10,
1870 1870
3 Dec. 5, 1870 Mar. 3, 1871 89 Dec. 23, 1870–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1870–Jan. 4,
1871 1871
42d 1 Mar. 4, 1871 Apr. 20, 1871 48
S May 10, 1871 May 27, 1871 18
2 Dec. 4, 1871 June 10, 1872 190 Dec. 21, 1871–Jan. 8, Dec. 21, 1871–Jan. 8,
1872 1872
3 Dec. 2, 1872 Mar. 3, 1873 92 Dec. 20, 1872–Jan. 6, Dec. 20, 1872–Jan. 6,
1873 1873
43d S Mar. 4, 1873 Mar. 26, 1873 23
1 Dec. 1, 1873 June 23, 1874 204 Dec. 19, 1873–Jan. 5, Dec. 19, 1873–Jan. 5,
1874 1874
2 Dec. 7, 1874 Mar. 3, 1875 87 Dec. 23, 1874–Jan. 5, Dec. 23, 1874–Jan. 5,
1875 1875
44th S Mar. 5, 1875 Mar. 24, 1875 20
1 Dec. 6, 1875 Aug. 15, 1876 254 Dec. 20, 1875–Jan. 5, Dec. 21, 1875–Jan. 5,
1876 1876
2 Dec. 4, 1876 Mar. 3, 1877 90
45th S Mar. 5, 1877 Mar. 17, 1877 13
1–E Oct. 15, 1877 Dec. 3, 1877 50
2 Dec. 3, 1877 June 20, 1878 200 Dec. 15, 1877–Jan. 10, Dec. 15, 1877–Jan. 10,
1878 1878
3 Dec. 2, 1878 Mar. 3, 1879 92 Dec. 20, 1878–Jan. 7, Dec. 20, 1878–Jan. 7,
1879 1879
46th 1–E Mar. 18, 1879 July 1, 1879 106
2 Dec. 1, 1879 June 16, 1880 199 Dec. 19, 1879–Jan. 6, Dec. 19, 1879–Jan. 6,
1880 1880
3 Dec. 6, 1880 Mar. 3, 1881 88 Dec. 23, 1880–Jan. 5, Dec. 23, 1880–Jan. 5,
1881 1881
47th S Mar. 4, 1881 May 20, 1881 78
S Oct. 10, 1881 Oct. 29, 1881 20
1 Dec. 5, 1881 Aug. 8, 1882 247 Dec. 22, 1881–Jan. 5, Dec. 22, 1881–Jan. 5,
1882 1882
2 Dec. 4, 1882 Mar. 3, 1883 90
48th 1 Dec. 3, 1883 July 7, 1884 218 Dec. 24, 1883–Jan. 7, Dec. 24, 1883–Jan. 7,
1884 1884
2 Dec. 1, 1884 Mar. 3, 1885 93 Dec. 24, 1884–Jan. 5, Dec. 24, 1884–Jan. 5,
1885 1885
49th S Mar. 4, 1885 Apr. 2, 1885 30
1 Dec. 7, 1885 Aug. 5, 1886 242 Dec. 21, 1885–Jan. 5, Dec. 21, 1885–Jan. 5,
1886 1886
2 Dec. 6, 1886 Mar. 3, 1887 88 Dec. 22, 1886–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1886–Jan. 4,
1887 1887
50th 1 Dec. 5, 1887 Oct. 20, 1888 321 Dec. 22, 1887–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1887–Jan. 4,
1888 1888
2 Dec. 3, 1888 Mar. 3, 1889 91 Dec. 21, 1888–Jan. 2, Dec. 21, 1888–Jan. 2,
1889 1889
51st S Mar. 4, 1889 Apr. 2, 1889 30
1 Dec. 2, 1889 Oct. 1, 1890 304 Dec. 21, 1889–Jan. 6, Dec. 21, 1889–Jan. 6,
1890 1890
2 Dec. 1, 1890 Mar. 3, 1891 93
52d 1 Dec. 7, 1891 Aug. 5, 1892 251
2 Dec. 5, 1892 Mar. 3, 1893 89 Dec. 22, 1892–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1892–Jan. 4,
1893 1893
53d S Mar. 4, 1893 Apr. 15, 1893 43
1–E Aug. 7, 1893 Nov. 3, 1893 89
2 Dec. 4, 1893 Aug. 28, 1894 268 Dec. 21, 1893–Jan. 3,
1894
3 Dec. 3, 1894 Mar. 3, 1895 97 Dec. 23, 1894–Jan. 3,
1895
54th 1 Dec. 2, 1895 June 11, 1896 193
2 Dec. 7, 1896 Mar. 3, 1897 87 Dec. 22, 1896–Jan. 5, Dec. 22, 1896–Jan. 5,
1897 1897
55th S Mar. 4, 1897 Mar. 10, 1897 11
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 45
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
1–E Mar. 15, 1897 July 24, 1897 131
2 Dec. 6, 1897 July 8, 1898 215 Dec. 18, 1897–Jan. 5, Dec. 18, 1897–Jan. 5,
1898 1898
3 Dec. 5, 1898 Mar. 3, 1899 89 Dec. 21, 1898–Jan. 4, Dec. 21, 1898–Jan. 4,
1899 1899
56th 1 Dec. 4, 1899 June 7, 1900 186 Dec. 20, 1899–Jan. 3, Dec. 20, 1899–Jan. 3,
1900 1900
2 Dec. 3, 1900 Mar. 3, 1901 91 Dec. 20, 1900–Jan. 3, Dec. 21, 1900–Jan. 3,
1901 1901
57th S Mar. 4, 1901 Mar. 9, 1901 6
1 Dec. 2, 1901 July 1, 1902 212 Dec. 19, 1901–Jan. 6, Dec. 19, 1901–Jan. 6,
1902 1902
2 Dec. 1, 1902 Mar. 3, 1903 93 Dec. 20, 1902–Jan. 5, Dec. 20, 1902–Jan. 5,
1903 1903
58th S Mar. 5, 1903 Mar. 19, 1903 15
1–E Nov. 9, 1903 Dec. 7, 1903 29
2 Dec. 7, 1903 Apr. 28, 1904 144 Dec. 19, 1903–Jan. 4, Dec. 19, 1903–Jan. 4,
1904 1904
3 Dec. 5, 1904 Mar. 3, 1905 89 Dec. 21, 1904–Jan. 4, Dec. 21, 1904–Jan. 4,
1905 1905
59th S Mar. 4, 1905 Mar. 18, 1905 15
1 Dec. 4, 1905 June 30, 1906 209 Dec. 21, 1905–Jan. 4, Dec. 21, 1905–Jan. 4,
1906 1906
2 Dec. 3, 1906 Mar. 3, 1907 91 Dec. 20, 1906–Jan. 3, Dec. 20, 1906–Jan. 3,
1907 1907
60th 1 Dec. 2, 1907 May 30, 1908 181 Dec. 21, 1907–Jan. 6, Dec. 21, 1907–Jan. 6,
1908 1908
2 Dec. 7, 1908 Mar. 3, 1909 87 Dec. 19, 1908–Jan. 4, Dec. 19, 1908–Jan. 4,
1909 1909
61st S Mar. 4, 1909 Mar. 6, 1909 3
1–E Mar. 15, 1909 Aug. 5, 1909 144
2 Dec. 6, 1909 June 25, 1910 202 Dec. 21, 1909–Jan. 4, Dec. 21, 1909–Jan. 4,
1910 1910
3 Dec. 5, 1910 Mar. 3, 1911 89 Dec. 21, 1910–Jan. 5, Dec. 21, 1910–Jan. 5,
1911 1911
62d 1–E Apr. 4, 1911 . Aug. 22, 1911 141
2 Dec. 4, 1911 Aug. 26, 1912 267 Dec. 21, 1911–Jan. 3, Dec. 21, 1911–Jan. 3,
1912 1912
3 Dec. 2, 1912 Mar. 3, 1913 92 Dec. 19, 1912–Jan. 2, Dec. 19, 1912–Jan. 2,
1913 1913
63d S Mar. 4, 1913 Mar. 17, 1913 14
1–E Apr. 7, 1913 Dec. 1, 1913 239
2 Dec. 1, 1913 Oct. 24, 1914 328 Dec. 23, 1913–Jan. 12, Dec. 23, 1913–Jan. 12,
1914 1914
3 Dec. 7, 1914 Mar. 3, 1915 87 Dec. 23–Dec. 28, 1914 Dec. 23–Dec. 28, 1914
64th 1 Dec. 6, 1915 Sept. 8, 1916 278 Dec. 17, 1915–Jan. 4, Dec. 17, 1915–Jan. 4,
1916 1916
2 Dec. 4, 1916 Mar. 3, 1917 90 Dec. 22, 1916–Jan. 2, Dec. 22, 1916–Jan. 2,
1917 1917
65th S Mar. 5, 1917 Mar. 16, 1917 12
1–E Apr. 2, 1917 Oct. 6, 1917 188
2 Dec. 3, 1917 Nov. 21, 1918 354 Dec. 18, 1917–Jan. 3, Dec. 18, 1917–Jan. 3,
1918 1918
3 Dec. 2, 1918 Mar. 3, 1919 92
66th 1–E May 19, 1919 Nov. 19, 1919 185 July 1–July 8, 1919 July 1–July 8, 1919
2 Dec. 1, 1919 June 5, 1920 188 Dec. 20, 1919–Jan. 5, Dec. 20, 1919–Jan. 5,
1920 1920
3 Dec. 6, 1920 Mar. 3, 1921 88
67th S Mar. 4, 1921 Mar. 15, 1921 12
1–E Apr. 11, 1921 Nov. 23, 1921 227 Aug. 24–Sept. 21, 1921 Aug. 24–Sept. 21, 1921
2 Dec. 5, 1921 Sept. 22, 1922 292 Dec. 22, 1921–Jan. 3, Dec. 22, 1921–Jan. 3,
1922 1922
3–E Nov. 20, 1922 Dec. 4, 1922 15
4 Dec. 4, 1922 Mar. 3, 1923 90
68th 1 Dec. 3, 1923 June 7, 1924 188 Dec. 20, 1923–Jan. 3, Dec. 20, 1923–Jan. 3,
1924 1924
2 Dec. 1, 1924 Mar. 3, 1925 93 Dec. 20–Dec. 29, 1924 Dec. 20–Dec. 29, 1924
69th S Mar. 4, 1925 Mar. 18, 1925 15
1 Dec. 7, 1925 July 3, 1926 209 Dec. 22, 1925–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1925–Jan. 4,
1926 1926
2 Dec. 6, 1926 Mar. 4, 1927 88 Dec. 22, 1926–Jan. 3, Dec. 22, 1926–Jan. 3,
1927 1927
70th 1 Dec. 5, 1927 May 29, 1928 177 Dec. 21, 1927–Jan. 4, Dec. 21, 1927–Jan. 4,
46 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the
Appendix A to opinionof the Court
of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
1928 1928
2 Dec. 3, 1928 Mar. 3, 1929 91 Dec. 22, 1928–Jan. 3, Dec. 22, 1928–Jan. 3,
1929 1929
71st S Mar. 4, 1929 Mar. 5, 1929 2
1–E Apr. 15, 1929 Nov. 22, 1929 222 June 19–Aug. 19, June 19–Sept. 23,
1929 1929
2 Dec. 2, 1929 July 3, 1930 214 Dec. 21, 1929–Jan. 6, Dec. 21, 1929–Jan. 6,
1930 1930
S July 7, 1930 July 21, 1930 15
3 Dec. 1, 1930 Mar. 3, 1931 93 Dec. 20, 1930–Jan. 5, Dec. 20, 1930–Jan. 5,
1931 1931
72d 1 Dec. 7, 1931 July 16, 1932 223 Dec. 22, 1931–Jan. 4, Dec. 22, 1931–Jan. 4,
1932 1932
2 Dec. 5, 1932 Mar. 3, 1933 89
73d S Mar. 4, 1933 Mar. 6, 1933 3
1–E Mar. 9, 1933 June 15, 1933 99
2 Jan. 3, 1934 June 18, 1934 167
74th 1 Jan. 3, 1935 Aug. 26, 1935 236
2 Jan. 3, 1936 June 20, 1936 170 June 8–June 15, 1936 June 8–June 15, 1936
75th 1 Jan. 5, 1937 Aug. 21, 1937 229
2–E Nov. 15, 1937 Dec. 21, 1937 37
3 Jan. 3, 1938 June 16, 1938 165
76th 1 Jan. 3, 1939 Aug. 5, 1939 215
2–E Sept. 21, 1939 Nov. 3, 1939 44
3 Jan. 3, 1940 Jan. 3, 1941 366 July 11–July 22, 1940 July 11–July 22, 1940
77th 1 Jan. 3, 1941 Jan. 2, 1942 365
2 Jan. 5, 1942 Dec. 16, 1942 346
78th 1 Jan. 6, 1943 Dec. 21, 1943 350 July 8–Sept. 14, 1943 July 8–Sept. 14, 1943
2 Jan. 10, 1944 Dec. 19, 1944 345 Apr. 1–Apr. 12, 1944 Apr. 1–Apr. 12, 1944
June 23–Aug. 1, 1944 June 23–Aug. 1, 1944
Sept. 21–Nov. 14, 1944 Sept. 21–Nov. 14, 1944
79th 1 Jan. 3, 1945 Dec. 21, 1945 353 Aug. 1–Sept. 5, 1945 July 21–Sept. 5, 1945
2 Jan. 14, 1946 Aug. 2, 1946 201 Apr. 18–Apr. 30, 1946
80th 1 Jan. 3, 1947 Dec. 19, 1947 351 July 27–Nov. 17, 1947 July 27–Nov. 17, 1947
2 Jan. 6, 1948 Dec. 31, 1948 361 June 20–July 26, 1948 June 20–July 26, 1948
Aug. 7–Dec. 31, 1948 Aug. 7–Dec. 31, 1948
81st 1 Jan. 3, 1949 Oct. 19, 1949 290
2 Jan. 3, 1950 Jan. 2, 1951 365 Sept. 23–Nov. 27, 1950 p Apr. 6–Apr. 18, 1950
Sept. 23–Nov. 27, 1950
82d 1 Jan. 3, 1951 Oct. 20, 1951 291 Mar. 22–Apr. 2, 1951
Aug. 23–Sept. 12, 1951
2 Jan. 8, 1952 July 7, 1952 182 Apr. 10–Apr. 22, 1952
83d 1 Jan. 3, 1953 Aug. 3, 1953 213 Apr. 2–Apr. 13, 1953
2 Jan. 6, 1954 Dec. 2, 1954 331 Aug. 20–Nov. 8, 1954 Apr. 15–Apr. 22, 1954
Nov. 18–Nov. 29, 1954 Adjourned sine die
Aug. 20, 1954
84th 1 Jan. 5, 1955 Aug. 2, 1955 210 Apr. 4–Apr. 13, 1955 Apr. 4–Apr. 13, 1955
2 Jan. 3, 1956 July 27, 1956 207 Mar. 29–Apr. 9, 1956 Mar. 29–Apr. 9, 1956
85th 1 Jan. 3, 1957 Aug. 30, 1957 239 Apr. 18–Apr. 29, 1957 Apr. 18–Apr. 29, 1957
2 Jan. 7, 1958 Aug. 24, 1958 230 Apr. 3–Apr. 14, 1958 Apr. 3–Apr. 14, 1958
86th 1 Jan. 7, 1959 Sept. 15, 1959 252 Mar. 26–Apr. 7, 1959 Mar. 26–Apr. 7, 1959
2 Jan. 6, 1960 Sept. 1, 1960 240 Apr. 14–Apr. 18, 1960 Apr. 14–Apr. 18, 1960
May 27–May 31, 1960 May 27–May 31, 1960
July 3–Aug. 8, 1960 July 3–Aug. 15, 1960
87th 1 Jan. 3, 1961 Sept. 27, 1961 268 Mar. 30–Apr. 10, 1961
2 Jan. 10, 1962 Oct. 13, 1962 277 Apr. 19–Apr. 30, 1962
88th 1 Jan. 9, 1963 Dec. 30, 1963 356 Apr. 11–Apr. 22, 1963
2 Jan. 7, 1964 Oct. 3, 1964 270 July 10–July 20, 1964 Mar. 26–Apr. 6, 1964
Aug. 21–Aug. 31, 1964 July 2–July 20, 1964
Aug. 21–Aug. 31, 1964
89th 1 Jan. 4, 1965 Oct. 23, 1965 293
2 Jan. 10, 1966 Oct. 22, 1966 286 Apr. 7–Apr. 13, 1966 Apr. 7–Apr. 18, 1966
June 30–July 11, 1966 June 30–July 11, 1966
90th 1 Jan. 10, 1967 Dec. 15, 1967 340 Mar. 23–Apr. 3, 1967 Mar. 23–Apr. 3, 1967
June 29–July 10, 1967 June 29–July 10, 1967
Aug. 31–Sept. 11, 1967 Aug. 31–Sept. 11, 1967
Nov. 22–Nov. 27, 1967 Nov. 22–Nov. 27, 1967
2 Jan. 15, 1968 Oct. 14, 1968 274 Apr. 11–Apr. 17, 1968 Apr. 11–Apr. 22, 1968
May 29–June 3, 1968 May 29–June 3, 1968
June 3–July 8, 1968 June 3–July 8, 1968
Aug. 2–Sept. 4, 1968 Aug. 2–Sept. 4, 1968
91st 1 Jan. 3, 1969 Dec. 23, 1969 355 Feb. 7–Feb. 17, 1969 Feb. 7–Feb. 17, 1969
Apr. 3–Apr. 14, 1969 Apr. 3–Apr. 14, 1969
July 2–July 7, 1969 May 28–June 2, 1969
Aug. 13–Sept. 3, 1969 July 2–July 7, 1969
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 47
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
Nov. 26–Dec. 1, 1969 Aug. 13–Sept. 3, 1969
Nov. 6–Nov. 12, 1969
Nov. 26–Dec. 1, 1969
2 Jan. 19, 1970 Jan. 2, 1971 349 Feb. 10–Feb. 16, 1970 Feb. 10–Feb. 16, 1970
Mar. 26–Mar. 31, 1970 Mar. 26–Mar. 31, 1970
Sept. 2–Sept. 8, 1970 May 27–June 1, 1970
Oct. 14–Nov. 16, 1970 July 1–July 6, 1970
Nov. 25–Nov. 30, 1970 Aug. 14–Sept. 9, 1970
Dec. 22–Dec. 28, 1970 Oct. 14–Nov. 16, 1970
Nov. 25–Nov. 30, 1970
Dec. 22–Dec. 29, 1970
92d 1 Jan. 21, 1971 Dec. 17, 1971 331 Feb. 11–Feb. 17, 1971 Feb. 10–Feb. 17, 1971
Apr. 7–Apr. 14, 1971 Apr. 7–Apr. 19, 1971
May 26–June 1, 1971 May 27–June 1, 1971
June 30–July 6, 1971 July 1–July 6, 1971
Aug. 6–Sept. 8, 1971 Aug. 6–Sept. 8, 1971
Oct. 21–Oct. 26, 1971 Oct. 7–Oct. 12, 1971
Nov. 24–Nov. 29, 1971 Oct. 21–Oct. 26, 1971
Nov. 19–Nov. 29, 1971
2 Jan. 18, 1972 Oct. 18, 1972 275 Feb. 9–Feb. 14, 1972 Feb. 9–Feb. 16, 1972
Mar. 30–Apr. 4, 1972 Mar. 29–Apr. 10, 1972
May 25–May 30, 1972 May 24–May 30, 1972
June 30–July 17, 1972 June 30–July 17, 1972
Aug. 18–Sept. 5, 1972 Aug. 18–Sept. 5, 1972
93d 1 Jan. 3, 1973 Dec. 22, 1973 354 Feb. 8–Feb. 15, 1973 Feb. 8–Feb. 19, 1973
Apr. 18–Apr. 30, 1973 Apr. 19–Apr. 30, 1973
May 23–May 29, 1973 May 24–May 29, 1973
June 30–July 9, 1973 June 30–July 10, 1973
Aug. 3–Sept. 5, 1973 Aug. 3–Sept. 5, 1973
Oct. 18–Oct. 23, 1973 Oct. 4–Oct. 9, 1973
Nov. 21–Nov. 26, 1973 Oct. 18–Oct. 23, 1973
Nov. 15–Nov. 26, 1973
2 Jan. 21, 1974 Dec. 20, 1974 334 Feb. 8–Feb. 18, 1974 Feb. 7–Feb. 13, 1974
Mar. 13–Mar. 19, 1974 Apr. 11–Apr. 22, 1974
Apr. 11–Apr. 22, 1974 May 23–May 28, 1974
May 23–May 28, 1974 Aug. 22–Sept. 11, 1974
Aug. 22–Sept. 4, 1974 Oct. 17–Nov. 18, 1974
Oct. 17–Nov. 18, 1974 Nov. 26–Dec. 3, 1974
Nov. 26–Dec. 2, 1974
94th 1 Jan. 14, 1975 Dec. 19, 1975 340 Mar. 26–Apr. 7, 1975 Mar. 26–Apr. 7, 1975
May 22–June 2, 1975 May 22–June 2, 1975
June 27–July 7, 1975 June 26–July 8, 1975
Aug. 1–Sept. 3, 1975 Aug. 1–Sept. 3, 1975
Oct. 9–Oct. 20, 1975 Oct. 9–Oct. 20, 1975
Oct. 23–Oct. 28, 1975 Oct. 23–Oct. 28, 1975
Nov. 20–Dec. 1, 1975 Nov. 20–Dec. 1, 1975
2 Jan. 19, 1976 Oct. 1, 1976 257 Feb. 6–Feb. 16, 1976 Feb. 11–Feb. 16, 1976
Apr. 14–Apr. 26, 1976 Apr. 14–Apr. 26, 1976
May 28–June 2, 1976 May 27–June 1, 1976
July 2–July 19, 1976 July 2–July 19, 1976
Aug. 10–Aug. 23, 1976 Aug. 10–Aug. 23, 1976
Sept. 1–Sept. 7, 1976 Sept. 2–Sept. 8, 1976
95th 1 Jan. 4, 1977 Dec. 15, 1977 346 Feb. 11–Feb. 21, 1977 Feb. 9–Feb. 16, 1977
Apr. 7–Apr. 18, 1977 Apr. 6–Apr. 18, 1977
May 27–June 6, 1977 May 26–June 1, 1977
July 1–July 11, 1977 June 30–July 11, 1977
Aug. 6–Sept. 7, 1977 Aug. 5–Sept. 7, 1977
Oct. 6–Oct. 11, 1977
2 Jan. 19, 1978 Oct. 15, 1978 270 Feb. 10–Feb. 20, 1978 Feb. 9–Feb. 14, 1978
Mar. 23–Apr. 3, 1978 Mar. 22–Apr. 3, 1978
May 26–June 5, 1978 May 25–May 31, 1978
June 29–July 10, 1978 June 29–July 10, 1978
Aug. 25–Sept. 6, 1978 Aug. 17–Sept. 6, 1978
96th 1 Jan. 15, 1979 Jan. 3, 1980 354 Feb. 9–Feb. 19, 1979 Feb. 8–Feb. 13, 1979
Apr. 10–Apr. 23, 1979 Apr. 10–Apr. 23, 1979
May 24–June 4, 1979 May 24–May 30, 1979
June 27–July 9, 1979 June 29–July 9, 1979
Aug. 3–Sept. 5, 1979 Aug. 2–Sept. 5, 1979
Nov. 20–Nov. 26, 1979 Nov. 20–Nov. 26, 1979
Adjourned sine die,
Dec. 20, 1979
2 Jan. 3, 1980 Dec. 16, 1980 349 Apr. 3–Apr. 15, 1980 Feb. 13–Feb. 19, 1980
May 22–May 28, 1980 Apr. 2–Apr. 15, 1980
July 2–July 21, 1980 May 22–May 28, 1980
Aug. 6–Aug. 18, 1980 July 2–July 21, 1980
48 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
Aug. 27–Sept. 3, 1980 Aug. 1–Aug. 18, 1980
Oct. 1–Nov. 12, 1980 Aug. 28–Sept. 3, 1980
Nov. 25–Dec. 1, 1980 Oct. 2–Nov. 12, 1980
Nov. 21–Dec. 1, 1980
97th 1 Jan. 5, 1981 Dec. 16, 1981 347 Feb. 6–Feb. 16, 1981 Feb. 6–Feb. 17, 1981
Apr. 10–Apr. 27, 1981 Apr. 10–Apr. 27, 1981
June 25–July 8, 1981 June 26–July 8, 1981
Aug. 3–Sept. 9, 1981 Aug. 4–Sept. 9, 1981
Oct. 7–Oct. 14, 1981 Oct. 7–Oct. 13, 1981
Nov. 24–Nov. 30, 1981 Nov. 23–Nov. 30, 1981
2 Jan. 25, 1982 Dec. 23, 1982 333 Feb. 11–Feb. 22, 1982 Feb. 10–Feb. 22, 1982
Apr. 1–Apr. 13, 1982 Apr. 6–Apr. 20, 1982
May 27–June 8, 1982 May 27–June 2, 1982
July 1–July 12, 1982 July 1–July 12, 1982
Aug. 20–Sept. 8, 1982 Aug. 20–Sept. 8, 1982
Oct. 1–Nov. 29, 1982 Oct. 1–Nov. 29, 1982
98th 1 Jan. 3, 1983 Nov. 18, 1983 320 Jan. 3–Jan. 25, 1983 Jan. 6–Jan. 25, 1983
Feb. 3–Feb. 14, 1983 Feb. 17–Feb. 22, 1983
Mar. 24–Apr. 5, 1983 Mar. 24–Apr. 5, 1983
May 26–June 6, 1983 May 26–June 1, 1983
June 29–July 11, 1983 June 30–July 11, 1983
Aug. 4–Sept. 12, 1983 Aug. 4–Sept. 12, 1983
Oct. 7–Oct. 17, 1983 Oct. 6–Oct. 17, 1983
2 Jan. 23, 1984 Oct. 12, 1984 264 Feb. 9–Feb. 20, 1984 Feb. 9–Feb. 21, 1984
Apr. 12–Apr. 24, 1984 Apr. 12–Apr. 24, 1984
May 24–May 31, 1984 May 24–May 30, 1984
June 29–July 23, 1984 June 29–July 23, 1984
Aug. 10–Sept. 5, 1984 Aug. 10–Sept. 5, 1984
99th 1 Jan. 3, 1985 Dec. 20, 1985 352 Jan. 7–Jan. 21, 1985 Jan. 3–Jan. 21, 1985
Feb. 7–Feb. 18, 1985 Feb. 7–Feb. 19, 1985
Apr. 4–Apr. 15, 1985 Mar. 7–Mar. 19, 1985
May 9–May 14, 1985 Apr. 4–Apr. 15, 1985
May 24–June 3, 1985 May 23–June 3, 1985
June 27–July 8, 1985 June 27–July 8, 1985
Aug. 1–Sept. 9, 1985 Aug. 1–Sept. 4, 1985
Nov. 23–Dec. 2, 1985 Nov. 21–Dec. 2, 1985
2 Jan. 21, 1986 Oct. 18, 1986 278 Feb. 7–Feb. 17, 1986 Feb. 6–Feb. 18, 1986
Mar. 27–Apr. 8, 1986 Mar. 25–Apr. 8, 1986
May 21–June 2, 1986 May 22–June 3, 1986
June 26–July 7, 1986 June 26–July 14, 1986
Aug. 15–Sept. 8, 1986 Aug. 16–Sept. 8, 1986
100th 1 Jan. 6, 1987 Dec. 22, 1987 351 Jan. 6–Jan. 12, 1987 Jan. 8–Jan. 20, 1987
Feb. 5–Feb. 16, 1987 Feb. 11–Feb. 18, 1987
Apr. 10–Apr. 21, 1987 Apr. 9–Apr. 21, 1987
May 21–May 27, 1987 May 21–May 27, 1987
July 1–July 7, 1987 July 1–July 7, 1987
Aug. 7–Sept. 9, 1987 July 15–July 20, 1987
Nov. 20–Nov. 30, 1987 Aug. 7–Sept. 9, 1987
Nov. 10–Nov. 16, 1987
Nov. 20–Nov. 30, 1987
2 Jan. 25, 1988 Oct. 22, 1988 272 Feb. 4–Feb. 15, 1988 Feb. 9–Feb. 16, 1988
Mar. 4–Mar. 14, 1988 Mar. 31–Apr. 11, 1988
Mar. 31–Apr. 11, 1988 May 26–June 1, 1988
Apr. 29–May 9, 1988 June 30–July 7, 1988
May 27–June 6, 1988 July 14–July 26, 1988
June 29–July 6, 1988 Aug. 11–Sept. 7, 1988
July 14–July 25, 1988
Aug. 11–Sept. 7, 1988
101st 1 Jan. 3, 1989 Nov. 22, 1989 324 Jan. 4–Jan. 20, 1989 Jan. 4–Jan. 19, 1989
Jan. 20–Jan. 25, 1989 Feb. 9–Feb. 21, 1989
Feb. 9–Feb. 21, 1989 Mar. 23–Apr. 3, 1989
Mar. 17–Apr. 4, 1989 Apr. 18–Apr. 25, 1989
Apr. 19–May 1, 1989 May 25–May 31, 1989
May 18–May 31, 1989 June 29–July 10, 1989
June 23–July 11, 1989 Aug. 5–Sept. 6, 1989
Aug. 4–Sept. 6, 1989
2 Jan. 23, 1990 Oct. 28, 1990 260 Feb. 8–Feb. 20, 1990 Feb. 7–Feb. 20, 1990
Mar. 9–Mar. 20, 1990 Apr. 4–Apr. 18, 1990
Apr. 5–Apr. 18, 1990 May 25–June 5, 1990
May 24–June 5, 1990 June 28–July 10, 1990
June 28–July 10, 1990 Aug. 4–Sept. 5, 1990
Aug. 4–Sept. 10, 1990
102d 1 Jan. 3, 1991 Jan. 3, 1992 366 Feb. 7–Feb. 19, 1991 Feb. 6–Feb. 19, 1991
Mar. 22–Apr. 9, 1991 Mar. 22–Apr. 9, 1991
Apr. 25–May 6, 1991 May 23–May 29, 1991
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 49
Opinion of the Court
Appendix A to opinion of the Court
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
May 24–June 3, 1991 June 27–July 9, 1991
June 28–July 8, 1991 Aug. 2–Sept. 11, 1991
Aug. 2–Sept. 10, 1991 Nov. 27, 1991–Jan. 3,
Nov. 27, 1991–Jan. 3, 1992
1992
2 Jan. 3, 1992 Oct. 9, 1992 281 Jan. 3–Jan. 21, 1992 Jan. 3–Jan. 22, 1992
Feb. 7–Feb. 18, 1992 p Apr. 10–Apr. 28, 1992
Apr. 10–Apr. 28, 1992 May 21–May 26, 1992
May 21–June 1, 1992 July 2–July 7, 1992
July 2–July 20, 1992 July 9–July 21, 1992
Aug. 12–Sept. 8, 1992 Aug. 12–Sept. 9, 1992
103d 1 Jan. 5, 1993 Nov. 26, 1993 326 Jan. 7–Jan. 20, 1993 Jan. 6–Jan. 20, 1993
Feb. 4–Feb. 16, 1993 Jan. 27–Feb. 2, 1993
Feb. 18–Feb. 24, 1993 p Feb. 4–Feb. 16, 1993
Apr. 7–Apr. 19, 1993 Apr. 7–Apr. 19, 1993
May 28–June 7, 1993 May 27–June 8, 1993
July 1–July 13, 1993 July 1–July 13, 1993
Aug. 7–Sept. 7, 1993 Aug. 6–Sept. 8, 1993
Oct. 7–Oct. 13, 1993 Sept. 15–Sept. 21, 1993
Nov. 11–Nov. 16, 1993 Oct. 7–Oct. 12, 1993
Nov. 10–Nov. 15, 1993
2 Jan. 25, 1994 Dec. 1, 1994 311 Feb. 11–Feb. 22, 1994 Jan. 26–Feb. 1, 1994
Mar. 26–Apr. 11, 1994 Feb. 11–Feb. 22, 1994
May 25–June 7, 1994 Mar. 24–Apr. 12, 1994
July 1–July 11, 1994 May 26–June 8, 1994
Aug. 25–Sept. 12, 1994 June 30–July 12, 1994
Oct. 8–Nov. 30, 1994 Aug. 26–Sept. 12, 1994
Oct. 8–Nov. 29, 1994
104th 1 Jan. 4, 1995 Jan. 3, 1996 365 Feb. 16–Feb. 22, 1995 Feb. 16–Feb. 21, 1995
Apr. 7–Apr. 24, 1995 Mar. 16–Mar. 21, 1995
May 26–June 5, 1995 Apr. 7–May 1, 1995
June 30–July 10, 1995 May 3–May 9, 1995
Aug. 11–Sept. 5, 1995 May 25–June 6, 1995
Sept. 29–Oct. 10, 1995 June 30–July 10, 1995
Nov. 20–Nov. 27, 1995 Aug. 4–Sept. 6, 1995
Sept. 29–Oct. 6, 1995
Nov. 20–Nov. 28, 1995
2 Jan. 3, 1996 Oct. 4, 1996 276 Jan. 10–Jan. 22, 1996 Jan. 9–Jan. 22, 1996
Feb. 1–Feb. 6, 1996 p Feb. 1–Feb. 27, 1996 p
Feb. 7–Feb. 20, 1996 p Mar. 29–Apr. 15, 1996
Feb. 29–Mar. 5, 1996 p May 23–May 29, 1996
Mar. 29–Apr. 15, 1996 June 28–July 8, 1996
May 24–June 3, 1996 Aug. 2–Sept. 4, 1996
June 28–July 8, 1996
Aug. 2–Sept. 3, 1996
105th 1 Jan. 7, 1997 Nov. 13, 1997 311 Jan. 9–Jan. 21, 1997 Jan. 9–Jan. 20, 1997
Feb. 13–Feb. 24, 1997 Jan. 21–Feb. 4, 1997
Mar. 21–Apr. 7, 1997 Feb. 13–Feb. 25, 1997
May 23–June 2, 1997 p Mar. 21–Apr. 8, 1997
June 27–July 7, 1997 June 26–July 8, 1997
July 31–Sept. 2, 1997 Aug. 1–Sept. 3, 1997
Oct. 9–Oct. 20, 1997 Oct. 9–Oct. 21, 1997
2 Jan. 27, 1998 Dec. 19, 1998 327 Feb. 13–Feb. 23, 1998 Jan. 28–Feb. 3, 1998
Apr. 3–Apr. 20, 1998 Feb. 5–Feb. 11, 1998
May 22–June 1, 1998 Feb. 12–Feb. 24, 1998
June 26–July 6, 1998 Apr. 1–Apr. 21, 1998
July 31–Aug. 31, 1998 May 22–June 3, 1998
Adjourned sine die, June 25–July 14, 1998
Oct. 21, 1998. Aug. 7–Sept. 9, 1998
Oct. 21–Dec. 17, 1998
106th 1 Jan. 6, 1999 Nov. 22, 1999 321 Feb. 12–Feb. 22, 1999 Jan. 6–Jan. 19, 1999
Mar. 25–Apr. 12, 1999 Jan. 19–Feb. 2, 1999
May 27–June 7, 1999 Feb. 12–Feb. 23, 1999
July 1–July 12, 1999 Mar. 25–Apr. 12, 1999
Aug. 5–Sept. 8, 1999 May 27–June 7, 1999
July 1–July 12, 1999
Aug. 6–Sept. 8, 1999
2 Jan. 24, 2000 Dec. 15, 2000 326 Feb. 10–Feb. 22, 2000 Feb. 16–Feb. 29, 2000
Mar. 9–Mar. 20, 2000 Apr. 13–May 2, 2000
Apr. 13–Apr. 25, 2000 May 25–June 6, 2000
May 25–June 6, 2000 June 30–July 10, 2000
June 30–July 10, 2000 July 27–Sept. 6, 2000
July 27–Sept. 5, 2000 Nov. 3–Nov. 13, 2000
Nov. 2–Nov. 14, 2000 Nov. 14–Dec. 4, 2000
Nov. 14–Dec. 5, 2000
50 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix A to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
107th 1 Jan. 3, 2001 Dec. 20, 2001 352 Jan. 8–Jan. 20, 2001 Jan. 6–Jan. 20, 2001
Feb. 15–Feb. 26, 2001 Jan. 20–Jan. 30, 2001
Apr. 6–Apr. 23, 2001 Jan. 31–Feb. 6, 2001
May 26–June 5, 2001 Feb. 14–Feb. 26, 2001
June 29–July 9, 2001 Apr. 4–Apr. 24, 2001
Aug. 3–Sept. 4, 2001 May 26–June 5, 2001
Oct. 18–Oct. 23, 2001 June 28–July 10, 2001
Nov. 16–Nov. 27, 2001 Aug. 2–Sept. 5, 2001
Oct. 17–Oct. 23, 2001
Nov. 19–Nov. 27, 2001
2 Jan. 23, 2002 Nov. 22, 2002 304 Jan. 29–Feb. 4, 2002 Jan. 29–Feb. 4, 2002
Feb. 15–Feb. 25, 2002 Feb. 14–Feb. 26, 2002
Mar. 22–Apr. 8, 2002 Mar. 20–Apr. 9, 2002
May 23–June 3, 2002 May 24–June 4, 2002
June 28–July 8, 2002 June 28–July 8, 2002
Aug. 1–Sept. 3, 2002 July 27–Sept. 4, 2002
Oct. 17–Nov. 12, 2002 p
108th 1 Jan. 7, 2003 Dec. 9, 2003 337 Feb. 14–Feb. 24, 2003 Jan. 8–Jan. 27, 2003
Apr. 11–Apr. 28, 2003 Feb. 13–Feb. 25, 2003
May 23–June 2, 2003 Apr. 12–Apr. 29, 2003
June 27–July 7, 2003 May 23–June 2, 2003
Aug. 1–Sept. 2, 2003 June 27–July 7, 2003
Oct. 3–Oct. 14, 2003 July 29–Sept. 3, 2003
Nov. 25–Dec. 9, 2003 Nov. 25–Dec. 8, 2003
2 Jan. 20, 2004 Dec. 8, 2004 324 Feb. 12–Feb. 23, 2004 Feb. 11–Feb. 24, 2004
Mar. 12–Mar. 22, 2004 Apr. 2–Apr. 20, 2004
Apr. 8–Apr. 19, 2004 May 20–June 1, 2004
May 21–June 1, 2004 June 9–June 14, 2004
June 9–June 14, 2004 June 25–July 6, 2004
June 25–July 6, 2004 July 22–Sept. 7, 2004
July 22–Sept. 7, 2004 Oct. 9–Nov. 16, 2004
Oct. 11–Nov. 16, 2004 Nov. 24–Dec. 6, 2004
Nov. 24–Dec. 7, 2004
109th 1 Jan. 4, 2005 Dec. 22, 2005 353 Jan. 6–Jan. 20, 2005 Jan. 6–Jan. 20, 2005
Jan. 26–Jan. 31, 2005 Jan. 20–Jan. 25, 2005
Feb. 18–Feb. 28, 2005 Jan. 26–Feb. 1, 2005
Mar. 20–Apr. 4, 2005 Feb. 2–Feb. 8, 2005
Apr. 29–May 9, 2005 Feb. 17–Mar. 1, 2005
May 26–June 6, 2005 Mar. 21–Apr. 5, 2005
July 1–July 11, 2005 May 26–June 7, 2005
July 29–Sept. 1, 2005 July 1–July 11, 2005
Sept. 1–Sept. 6, 2005 July 29–Sept. 2, 2005
Oct. 7–Oct. 17, 2005 Oct. 7–Oct. 17, 2005
Nov. 18–Dec. 12, 2005 Nov. 18–Dec. 6, 2005
2 Jan. 3, 2006 Dec. 9, 2006 341 Jan. 3–Jan. 18, 2006 Jan. 3–Jan. 31, 2006
Feb. 17–Feb. 27, 2006 Feb. 1–Feb. 7, 2006
Mar. 16–Mar. 27, 2006 Feb. 8–Feb. 14, 2006
Apr. 7–Apr. 24, 2006 Feb. 16–Feb. 28, 2006
May 26–June 5, 2006 Mar. 16–Mar. 28, 2006
June 29–July 10, 2006 Apr. 6–Apr. 25, 2006
Aug. 4–Sept. 5, 2006 May 25–June 6, 2006
Sept. 30–Nov. 9, 2006 June 29–July 10, 2006
Nov. 16–Dec. 4, 2006 Aug. 2–Sept. 6, 2006
Sept. 30–Nov. 9, 2006
Nov. 15–Dec. 5, 2006
110th 1 Jan. 4, 2007 Dec. 31, 2007 362 Feb. 17–Feb. 26, 2007 Jan. 24–Jan. 29, 2007
Mar. 29–Apr. 10, 2007 Feb. 16–Feb. 27, 2007
May 25–June 4, 2007 Mar. 30–Apr. 16, 2007
June 29–July 9, 2007 May 24–June 5, 2007
Aug. 3–Sept. 4, 2007 June 28–July 10, 2007
Oct. 5–Oct. 15, 2007 Aug. 4–Sept. 4, 2007
Nov. 16–Dec. 3, 2007 p Nov. 15–Dec. 4, 2007
Dec. 19–Dec. 31, 2007 p
2 Jan. 3, 2008 Jan. 3, 2009 367 Jan. 3–Jan. 22, 2008 p Jan. 3–Jan. 15, 2008
Feb. 14–Feb. 26, 2008 p Mar. 14–Mar. 31, 2008
Mar. 13–Mar. 31, 2008 p May 22–June 3, 2008
May 22–June 2, 2008 p June 26–July 8, 2008
June 27–July 7, 2008 Aug. 1–Sept. 8, 2008
Aug. 1–Sept. 8, 2008 p Oct. 3–Nov. 19, 2008
Oct. 2–Nov. 17, 2008 p Nov. 20–Dec. 9, 2008
Nov. 20–Dec. 8, 2008 p Dec. 10, 2008–Jan. 3,
2009
Dec. 11, 2008–Jan. 2,
2009 p
111th 1 Jan. 6, 2009 Dec. 24, 2009 353 Feb. 13–Feb. 23, 2009 p Feb. 13–Feb. 23, 2009
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 51
Opinion of the Court
Appendix A to opinion of the Court
Length Recesses 2
Con Ses Convening Adjournment
in House of Representa
gress sion Date Date Senate
days1 tives
Apr. 2–Apr. 20, 2009 Apr. 2–Apr. 21, 2009
May 21–June 1, 2009 May 21–June 2, 2009
June 25–July 6, 2009 June 26–July 7, 2009
Aug. 7–Sept. 8, 2009 p July 31–Sept. 8, 2009
Oct. 8–Oct. 13, 2009 p Nov. 6–Nov. 16, 2009
Nov. 10–Nov. 16, 2009 Nov. 19–Dec. 1, 2009
Nov. 21–Nov. 30, 2009
2 Jan. 5, 2010 Dec. 22, 2010 352 Jan. 5–Jan. 20, 2010 p Jan. 5–Jan. 12, 2010
Feb. 11–Feb. 23, 2010 Feb. 9–Feb. 22, 2010
Mar. 26–Apr. 12, 2010 Mar. 25–Apr. 13, 2010
May 28–June 7, 2010 May 28–June 8, 2010
June 30–July 12, 2010 July 1–July 13, 2010
Aug. 5–Aug. 12, 2010 July 30–Aug. 9, 2010
Aug. 12–Sept. 13, 2010 Aug. 10–Sept. 14, 2010
Sept. 29–Nov. 15, 2010 p Sept. 29–Nov. 15, 2010
Nov. 19–Nov. 29, 2010 Nov. 18–Nov. 29, 2010
112th 1 Jan. 5, 2011 Jan. 5–Jan. 25, 2011 Jan. 26–Feb. 8, 2011
Feb. 17–Feb. 28, 2011 Feb. 18–Feb. 28, 2011
Mar. 17–Mar. 28, 2011 Mar. 17–Mar. 29, 2011
Apr. 14–May 2, 2011 Apr. 15–May 2, 2011
May 26–June 6, 2011 p May 13–May 23, 2011
Aug. 2–Sept. 6, 2011 p June 24–July 5, 2011 p
Aug. 1–Sept. 6, 2011 p
1 For the purposes of this table, a session’s ‘‘length in days’’ is defined as the total number of calendar days
from the convening date to the adjournment date, inclusive. It does not mean the actual number of days
that Congress met during that session.
2 For the purposes of this table, a ‘‘recess’’ is defined as a break in House or Senate proceedings of three or
more days, excluding Sundays. According to Article I, section 5 of the U. S. Constitution, neither house
may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other. On occasion, both chambers have
held one or more pro forma sessions because of this constitutional obligation or for other purposes. Treated
here as recesses, usually no business is conducted during these time periods. On this table, beginning in
the 1990s, such pro forma sessions are indicated with a P.
52 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix B to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
A
B
The following table shows the proportion of recent ap
pointments that have filled pre-recess vacancies. It was
compiled with research assistance from the Supreme
Court Library. It contains a random sample of the recess
appointments by President George W. Bush and President
Barack Obama. The last column indicates whether the
vacancy arose during the recess in which it was filled. “A”
indicates a vacancy that arose during the recess, “P” indi
cates a vacancy that arose before the recess, and “U”
indicates that the vacancy date could not be ascertained.
Date the
Date of
Position Status of
Name1 Position Recess
Became Vacancy
Appointment
Vacant
Peter J. Member (designated
8/31/01 8/27/20012 A
Hurtgen Chair), NLRB
Comm’r on the Part of the
Dennis L.
US, Int’l Joint Comm’n, 3/29/02 Unknown3 U
Schornack
US and Can.
Tony Comm’r, Postal Rate
8/06/02 2/20014 P
Hammond Comm’n
R. Bruce Member, Def. Nuclear
4/22/03 5/20025 P
Matthews Facilities Safety Bd.
Ephraim Bd. Member, African Dev.
8/22/03 2/10/20026 P
Batambuze Found.
Bradley D. Member, Soc. Sec.
12/23/03 9/20027 P
Belt Advisory Bd. (SSAB)
Ronald E.
Member, NLRB 12/23/03 8/21/038 P
Meisburg
Charles Chief Financial Officer,
5/28/04 20039 P
Johnson EPA
Member, Advisory Bd.,
Jack E.
St. Lawrence Seaway 7/02/04 Unknown10 U
McGregor
Dev. Corp.
Assistant Adm’r, Bureau
James R.
for Asia and the Near 8/02/04 1/200411 P
Kunder
East, USAID
Susan J. Chief Financial Officer,
8/02/04 200312 P
Grant Dept. of Energy
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 53
Appendix B to opinionCourt Court
Opinion of the of the
A
Date the
Date of
Position Status of
Name1 Position Recess
Became Vacancy
Appointment
Vacant
Member (designated
Anthony J. 3/2005 (new
Chair), Def. Base Closure 4/01/05 P
Principi position)13
and Realignment Comm’n
John R. US Representative to the
8/01/05 1/200514 P
Bolton UN
Assistant Sec’y, Popula
Ellen R.
tion, Refugees, and 1/04/06 by 7/200515 P
Sauerbrey
Migration, Dept. of State
Ronald E.
General Counsel, NLRB 1/04/06 6/03/200516 P
Meisburg
Member, Bd. of Trustees,
Fed. Old-Age and
John L.
Survivors Ins. Trust Fund 4/19/06 10/200417 P
Palmer
and the Fed. Disability
Ins. Trust Fund
Assistant Sec’y, Mine,
Richard E.
Safety, and Health 10/19/06 11/19/200418 P
Stickler
Admin.
Susan E.
Adm’r, OIRA, OMB 4/04/07 2/200619 P
Dudley
Mark G.
Member, NLRB 3/27/10 1/200820 P
Pearce
Mark C. Chief of Mission, El
8/19/10 1/17/0921 P
Aponte Salvador, Dept. of State
Richard
Member, NLRB 1/04/12 8/27/1122 P
Griffin Jr.
——————
1 The name, position, and date of each recess appointment were taken from The Noel Canning
Decision 21–29. The sample was generated by selecting every 10th appointment from a chronologi
cal list of all recess appointments made during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack
Obama.
2 See White House Press Release: President Bush Announces Hurtgen To Stay on as Member and
Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, Aug. 31, 2001, online at http://georgewbush
whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010831-14.html.
3 Schornack was preceded by Thomas L. Baldini. 147 Cong. Rec. 12592 (2001). We could not find
a specific date for Baldini’s departure. See Lane, Engler Advisers Tapped for Water Jobs, Crain’s
Detroit Business, June 18, 2001, p. 6 (Schornack “would replace Marquette’s Thomas Baldini,
former President Bill Clinton’s appointee”); Finley, Senate Often Turns its Role of Advise and
Consent into Object and Obstruct, Detroit News, Feb. 10, 2002, p. 13A, col. 1. (“The International
Joint Commission post is still held by Clinton appointee Tom Baldini, also of Michigan”).
4 Hammond was preceded by Edward Jay Gleiman, 148 Cong. Rec. 4472 (2002), who retired in
February 2001, see Campanelli, PRC Chairman Gleiman Retires, Direct Marketing News, Feb. 6,
2001, online at http://www.dmnews.com/prc-chairman-gleiman-retires/article/70877.
5 Matthews was preceded by Joseph J. DiNunno, 38 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 804 (2002),
who retired in May 2002, see DNFSB Member Biography, online at http://www.dnfsb.gov/
about/board-members/joseph-j-dinunno.
54 NLRB v. CANNING
Appendix B to opinion of the Court
——————
6 Batambuze was preceded by Henry McKoy, 149 Cong. Rec. 4875 (2003), whose term expired on
February 9, 2002, see 32 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 363 (1996).
7 Belt was preceded by Stanford G. Ross, 149 Cong. Rec. 20993 (2003), whose term on the SSAB
expired in September 2002, see SSAB Member List, online at http://www.ssab.gov/
AbouttheBoard/Members.aspx.
8 See Division of Information, NLRB, Ronald Meisburg Receives Recess Appointment From
President Bush to Be NLRB Member (Dec. 29, 2003), online at http://mynlrb.nlrb.gov/link/
document.aspx/09031d45800d5d75.
9 Johnson was preceded by Linda Morrison Combs, 150 Cong. Rec. 236 (2004), who apparently
left in 2003, see Hearings on S. 113 before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmen
tal Affairs, 109th Cong., 1st Sess., 2 (2005) (“Combs served as [CFO] of the [EPA] from 2001 to
2003”); see also 149 Cong. Rec. 31985 (2003) (nomination of Linda Morrison Combs to be Assistant
Secretary of Transportation); 150 Cong. Rec. 10973 (2004) (confirmation of Combs to be Assistant
Secretary of Transportation).
10 McGregor was preceded by Vincent J. Sorrentino. 149 Cong. Rec. 31985 (2003). We have
located no further information about Sorrentino’s departure date.
11 Kunder was preceded by Wendy J. Chamberlin, 150 Cong. Rec. 8983 (2004), who accepted a
new appointment as of January 2004, see United Nations Refugee Agency Press Release, Wendy
Chamberlin Appointed Deputy High Commissioner, Dec. 12, 2003, online at http://
www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/3fda0f584.html.
12 Grant was preceded by Bruce M. Carnes, 149 Cong. Rec. 24527 (2003), who resigned during
2003, see Bush Nominee to Energy Department CFO Post OK’d by Committee, Environment and
Energy Daily, March 11, 2004; see also 39 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 308 (2003).
13 Principi was nominated for this newly created position on March 4, 2005. 151 Cong. Rec. 3543
(2005). The position was created by statute in 2001. 115 Stat. 1343–1344.
14 See Hoge, Diplomats at U. N. Surprised by Danforth’s Resignation, N. Y. Times, Dec. 3, 2004,
p. A6.
15 Sauerbrey was preceded by Arthur Dewey. 151 Cong. Rec. 19554 (2005); see also Weekly
Review of Developments in Human Rights and Democracy, Dow Jones Factiva, June 30, 2005;
Arthur E. Dewey, Dept. of State Biography, online at http://2001-2009.state.gov/outofdate/
bios/d/7988.htm.
16 Meisburg was preceded by Arthur F. Rosenfeld, whose term expired on June 3, 2005, see
NLRB General Counsels Since 1935, online at http://www.nlrb.gov/who-we-are/general-counsel/
general-counsels-1935.
17 Palmer was nominated as a reappointment on November 7, 2005. 151 Cong. Rec. 25016 (2005).
The Senate confirmed Palmer to his previous 4-year term on October 24, 2000. 146 Cong. Rec
23920 (2000).
18 Stickler was preceded by David D. Lauriski, 152 Cong. Rec. 17151 (2006), who resigned on
November 19, 2004, see Dept. of Labor, News Release, U. S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine
Safety and Health Dave D. Lauriski Announces His Plans for Departure, Nov. 12, 2004.
19 Dudley was preceded by John D. Graham, 152 Cong. Rec. 16707 (2006), who left the office in
February 2006, see J. R. Pegg, Bush Bypasses Senate to Appoint Controversial Regulatory Chief,
Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, Apr. 9, 2007, vol. 35, No. 24, pp. 13–14.
20 Pearce was preceded by Peter N. Kirsanow, whose term had ended by January 2008,
see Members of the NLRB since 1935, online at http://www.nlrb.gov/who-we-are/board/
members-nlrb-1935.
21 Aponte was preceded by Charles Glazer, who left his post on January 17, 2009, see Dept. of
State, Office of the Historian, Chiefs of Mission for El Salvador, online at http://
history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/glazer-charles-l.
22 See App. to Brief for Petitioner 89a.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 1
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 12–1281
_________________
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, PETITIONER
v. NOEL CANNING, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
[June 26, 2014]
JUSTICE SCALIA, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE,
JUSTICE THOMAS, and JUSTICE ALITO join, concurring in
the judgment.
Except where the Constitution or a valid federal law
provides otherwise, all “Officers of the United States”
must be appointed by the President “by and with the
Advice and Consent of the Senate.” U. S. Const., Art. II,
§2, cl. 2. That general rule is subject to an exception: “The
President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that
may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting
Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next
Session.” Id., §2, cl. 3. This case requires us to decide
whether the Recess Appointments Clause authorized three
appointments made by President Obama to the National
Labor Relations Board in January 2012 without the Sen
ate’s consent.
To prevent the President’s recess-appointment power
from nullifying the Senate’s role in the appointment pro
cess, the Constitution cabins that power in two significant
ways. First, it may be exercised only in “the Recess of the
Senate,” that is, the intermission between two formal
legislative sessions. Second, it may be used to fill only
those vacancies that “happen during the Recess,” that is,
offices that become vacant during that intermission. Both
conditions are clear from the Constitution’s text and struc
2 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
ture, and both were well understood at the founding. The
Court of Appeals correctly held that the appointments
here at issue are invalid because they did not meet either
condition.
Today’s Court agrees that the appointments were in
valid, but for the far narrower reason that they were made
during a 3-day break in the Senate’s session. On its way
to that result, the majority sweeps away the key textual
limitations on the recess-appointment power. It holds,
first, that the President can make appointments without
the Senate’s participation even during short breaks in the
middle of the Senate’s session, and second, that those
appointments can fill offices that became vacant long
before the break in which they were filled. The majority
justifies those atextual results on an adverse-possession
theory of executive authority: Presidents have long
claimed the powers in question, and the Senate has not
disputed those claims with sufficient vigor, so the Court
should not “upset the compromises and working arrange
ments that the elected branches of Government them
selves have reached.” Ante, at 9.
The Court’s decision transforms the recess-appointment
power from a tool carefully designed to fill a narrow and
specific need into a weapon to be wielded by future Presi
dents against future Senates. To reach that result, the
majority casts aside the plain, original meaning of the
constitutional text in deference to late-arising historical
practices that are ambiguous at best. The majority’s
insistence on deferring to the Executive’s untenably broad
interpretation of the power is in clear conflict with our
precedent and forebodes a diminution of this Court’s role
in controversies involving the separation of powers and
the structure of government. I concur in the judgment
only.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 3
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
I. Our Responsibility
Today’s majority disregards two overarching principles
that ought to guide our consideration of the questions
presented here.
First, the Constitution’s core, government-structuring
provisions are no less critical to preserving liberty than
are the later adopted provisions of the Bill of Rights.
Indeed, “[s]o convinced were the Framers that liberty of
the person inheres in structure that at first they did not
consider a Bill of Rights necessary.” Clinton v. City of
New York, 524 U. S. 417, 450 (1998) (KENNEDY, J., concur
ring). Those structural provisions reflect the founding
generation’s deep conviction that “checks and balances
were the foundation of a structure of government that
would protect liberty.” Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U. S. 714,
722 (1986). It is for that reason that “the claims of indi
viduals—not of Government departments—have been the
principal source of judicial decisions concerning separation
of powers and checks and balances.” Bond v. United
States, 564 U. S. ___, ___ (2011) (slip op., at 10); see, e.g.,
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting
Oversight Bd., 561 U. S. 477 (2010); Clinton, supra; Plaut
v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U. S. 211 (1995); Bowsher,
supra; INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919 (1983); Northern
Pipeline Constr. Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 U. S.
50 (1982). Those decisions all rest on the bedrock princi
ple that “the constitutional structure of our Government”
is designed first and foremost not to look after the inter
ests of the respective branches, but to “protec[t] individual
liberty.” Bond, supra, at ___ (slip op., at 11).
Second and relatedly, when questions involving the
Constitution’s government-structuring provisions are
presented in a justiciable case, it is the solemn responsibil
ity of the Judicial Branch “ ‘to say what the law is.’ ” Zivo
tofsky v. Clinton, 566 U. S. ___, ___ (2012) (slip op., at 7)
(quoting Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803)).
4 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
This Court does not defer to the other branches’ resolution
of such controversies; as JUSTICE KENNEDY has previously
written, our role is in no way “lessened” because it might
be said that “the two political branches are adjusting their
own powers between themselves.” Clinton, supra, at 449
(concurring opinion). Since the separation of powers exists
for the protection of individual liberty, its vitality “does
not depend” on “whether ‘the encroached-upon branch
approves the encroachment.’ ” Free Enterprise Fund,
supra, at 497 (quoting New York v. United States, 505
U. S. 144, 182 (1992)); see also Freytag v. Commissioner,
501 U. S. 868, 879–880 (1991); Metropolitan Washington
Airports Authority v. Citizens for Abatement of Aircraft
Noise, Inc., 501 U. S. 252, 276–277 (1991). Rather, polic
ing the “enduring structure” of constitutional government
when the political branches fail to do so is “one of the most
vital functions of this Court.” Public Citizen v. Depart
ment of Justice, 491 U. S. 440, 468 (1989) (KENNEDY, J.,
concurring in judgment).
Our decision in Chadha illustrates that principle.
There, we held that a statutory provision authorizing one
House of Congress to cancel an executive action taken
pursuant to statutory authority—a so-called “legislative
veto”—exceeded the bounds of Congress’s authority under
the Constitution. 462 U. S., at 957–959. We did not hesi
tate to hold the legislative veto unconstitutional even
though Congress had enacted, and the President had
signed, nearly 300 similar provisions over the course of 50
years. Id., at 944–945. Just the opposite: We said the
other branches’ enthusiasm for the legislative veto “sharp
ened rather than blunted” our review. Id., at 944. Like
wise, when the charge is made that a practice “enhances
the President’s powers beyond” what the Constitution
permits, “[i]t is no answer . . . to say that Congress sur
rendered its authority by its own hand.” Clinton, 524
U. S., at 451 (KENNEDY, J., concurring). “[O]ne Congress
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 5
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
cannot yield up its own powers, much less those of other
Congresses to follow. Abdication of responsibility is not
part of the constitutional design.” Id., at 452 (citations
omitted).
Of course, where a governmental practice has been
open, widespread, and unchallenged since the early days
of the Republic, the practice should guide our interpreta
tion of an ambiguous constitutional provision. See, e.g.,
Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706, 743–744 (1999); Bowsher,
supra, at 723–724; Myers v. United States, 272 U. S. 52,
174–175 (1926); see also Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v.
Sawyer, 343 U. S. 579, 610 (1952) (Frankfurter, J., concur
ring) (arguing that “a systematic, unbroken, executive
practice, long pursued to the knowledge of the Congress
and never before questioned” should inform interpretation
of the “Executive Power” vested in the President); Rutan v.
Republican Party of Ill., 497 U. S. 62, 95, and n. 1 (1990)
(SCALIA, J., dissenting). But “ ‘[p]ast practice does not, by
itself, create power.’ ” Medellín v. Texas, 552 U. S. 491,
532 (2008) (quoting Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U. S.
654, 686 (1981)). That is a necessary corollary of the
principle that the political branches cannot by agreement
alter the constitutional structure. Plainly, then, a self
aggrandizing practice adopted by one branch well after the
founding, often challenged, and never before blessed by
this Court—in other words, the sort of practice on which
the majority relies in this case—does not relieve us of our
duty to interpret the Constitution in light of its text, struc
ture, and original understanding.
Ignoring our more recent precedent in this area, which
is extensive, the majority relies on The Pocket Veto Case,
279 U. S. 655, 689 (1929), for the proposition that when
interpreting a constitutional provision “regulating the
relationship between Congress and the President,” we
must defer to the settled practice of the political branches
if the provision is “ ‘ “in any respect of doubtful meaning.” ’ ”
6 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Ante, at 7; see ante, at 8, 16, 23, 33. The language the
majority quotes from that case was pure dictum. The
Pocket Veto Court had to decide whether a bill passed by
the House and Senate and presented to the President less
than 10 days before the adjournment of the first session of
a particular Congress, but neither signed nor vetoed by
the President, became a law. Most of the opinion analyzed
that issue like any other legal question and concluded that
treating the bill as a law would have been inconsistent
with the text and structure of the Constitution. Only near
the end of the opinion did the Court add that its conclu
sion was “confirmed” by longstanding Presidential practice
in which Congress appeared to have acquiesced. 279
U. S., at 688–689. We did not suggest that the case would
have come out differently had the longstanding practice
been otherwise.1
——————
1 The other cases cited by the majority in which we have afforded
significant weight to historical practice, ante, at 8, are consistent with
the principles described above. Nearly all involved venerable and
unchallenged practices, and constitutional provisions that were either
deeply ambiguous or plainly supportive of the practice. See Dames &
Moore v. Regan, 453 U. S. 654, 679–681, and n. 8, 686 (1981) (citing
Presidential practice dating from 1799 and never questioned by Con
gress to inform meaning of “Executive Power”); Ex parte Grossman, 267
U. S. 87, 118–119 (1925) (citing unchallenged Presidential practice
dating from 1841 as support for a construction of the pardon power
based on the “common law,” the “history of the clause in the Conven
tion,” and “the ordinary meaning of its words”); United States v. Mid
west Oil Co., 236 U. S. 459, 469–471, 474 (1915) (citing Presidential
practice dating from “an early period in the history of the government,”
“uniformly and repeatedly acquiesced in” by Congress and previously
upheld by this Court, to establish “a recognized administrative power of
the Executive in the management of the public lands”); McPherson v.
Blacker, 146 U. S. 1, 25–35 (1892) (citing method of choosing Presiden
tial electors prevalent among the States “from the formation of the
government until now,” as to the constitutionality of which “ ‘no ques
tion ha[d] ever arisen,’ ” in support of construction consistent with the
constitutional text and its drafting history); McCulloch v. Maryland, 4
Wheat. 316, 401–402 (1819) (citing power “exercised by the first Con
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 7
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
II. Intra-Session Breaks
The first question presented is whether “the Recess of
the Senate,” during which the President’s recess
appointment power is active, is (a) the period between two
of the Senate’s formal sessions, or (b) any break in the
Senate’s proceedings. I would hold that “the Recess” is the
gap between sessions and that the appointments at issue
here are invalid because they undisputedly were made
during the Senate’s session. The Court’s contrary conclu
sion—that “the Recess” includes “breaks in the midst of a
session,” ante, at 9—is inconsistent with the Constitution’s
text and structure, and it requires judicial fabrication of
vague, unadministrable limits on the recess-appointment
power (thus defined) that overstep the judicial role. And
although the majority relies heavily on “historical prac
tice,” no practice worthy of our deference supports the
majority’s conclusion on this issue.
A. Plain Meaning
A sensible interpretation of the Recess Appointments
Clause should start by recognizing that the Clause uses
the term “Recess” in contradistinction to the term “Ses
sion.” As Alexander Hamilton wrote: “The time within
which the power is to operate ‘during the recess of the
——————
gress elected under the present constitution,” “recognized by many
successive legislatures, and . . . acted upon by the judicial department,”
in support of the conclusion that the Necessary and Proper Clause
allowed Congress to incorporate a bank); Stuart v. Laird, 1 Cranch 299,
309 (1803) (citing practice that “commence[d] with the organization of
the judicial system” in rejecting challenge to Supreme Court Justices’
riding circuit). Even Mistretta v. United States, 488 U. S. 361 (1989),
which concluded that the constitutional text did not prohibit judges
from undertaking extrajudicial duties and found “additional evidence”
for that conclusion in a longstanding practice that it acknowledged had
been “controversial,” emphasized that it was relying on “contemporane
ous practice by the Founders themselves” that had been “frequent and
continuing” since ratification. Id., at 397–400.
8 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Senate’ and the duration of the appointments ‘to the end of
the next session’ of that body, conspire to elucidate the
sense of the provision.” The Federalist No. 67, p. 455 (J.
Cooke ed. 1961).
In the founding era, the terms “recess” and “session”
had well-understood meanings in the marking-out of
legislative time. The life of each elected Congress typically
consisted (as it still does) of two or more formal sessions
separated by adjournments “sine die,” that is, without a
specified return date. See GPO, Congressional Directory,
113th Cong., pp. 524–542 (2013–2014) (hereinafter Con
gressional Directory) (listing sessions of Congress from
1789 through 2013); 705 F. 3d 490, 512, and nn. 1–2
(CADC 2013) (case below); ante, at 9. The period between
two sessions was known as “the recess.” See 26 Annals of
Cong. 748 (1814) (Sen. Gore) (“The time of the Senate
consists of two periods, viz: their session and their re
cess”). As one scholar has thoroughly demonstrated, “in
government practice the phrase ‘the Recess’ always re
ferred to the gap between sessions.” Natelson, The Ori
gins and Meaning of “Vacancies that May Happen During
the Recess” in the Constitution’s Recess Appointments
Clause, 37 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 199, 213 (2014) (here
inafter Natelson); see id., at 214–227 (providing dozens of
examples). By contrast, other provisions of the Constitu
tion use the verb “adjourn” rather than “recess” to refer to
the commencement of breaks during a formal legislative
session. See, e.g., Art. I, §5, cl. 1; id., §5, cl. 4.2
——————
2 Themajority claims that “the phrase ‘the recess’ was used to refer to
intra-session recesses at the time of the founding,” ante, at 10, but it
offers strikingly little support for that assertion. It first cites a letter
from George Washington that is quite obviously an example of impre
cise, colloquial usage. See 3 Records of the Federal Convention of 1787,
p. 76 (M. Farrand rev. 1966) (“I had put my carriage in the hands of a
workman to be repaired and had not the means of mooving [sic] during
the recess”). It next cites an example from the New Jersey Legislature
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 9
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
To be sure, in colloquial usage both words, “recess” and
“session,” could take on alternative, less precise meanings.
A session could include any short period when a legisla
ture’s members were “assembled for business,” and a
recess could refer to any brief “suspension” of legislative
“business.” 2 N. Webster, American Dictionary of the
English Language (1828). So the Continental Congress
could complain of the noise from passing carriages dis
rupting its “daily Session,” 29 Journals of the Continental
Congress 1774–1789, p. 561 (1785) (J. Fitzpatrick ed.
1933), and the House could “take a recess” from 4 o’clock
to 6 o’clock, Journal of the House of Representatives, 17th
Cong., 2d Sess., p. 259 (1823). But as even the majority
acknowledges, the Constitution’s use of “the word ‘the’ in
‘the [R]ecess’ ” tends to suggest “that the phrase refers to
the single break separating formal sessions.” Ante, at 10.
More importantly, neither the Solicitor General nor the
majority argues that the Clause uses “session” in its loose,
colloquial sense. And if “the next Session” denotes a for
mal session, then “the Recess” must mean the break be
tween formal sessions. As every commentator on the
Clause until the 20th century seems to have understood,
the “Recess” and the “Session” to which the Clause refers
are mutually exclusive, alternating states. See, e.g., The
Federalist No. 67, at 455 (explaining that appointments
would require Senatorial consent “during the session of
the Senate” and would be made by the President alone “in
their recess”); 1 Op. Atty. Gen. 631 (1823) (contrasting
——————
that simply reflects that body’s practice of dividing its time not only
into “sessions” but also into distinct, formal “sittings” within each
session, with “the recess” denoting the period between sittings. See
Brief for Respondent Noel Canning 23; see also Natelson 207. Finally,
the majority cites three pages from the Solicitor General’s brief without
acknowledging the arguments offered in response to the Solicitor
General’s few supposed counterexamples. See, e.g., Brief for Respond
ent Noel Canning 21–24; Natelson 222, n. 120.
10 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
vacancies occurring “during the recess of the Senate” with
those occurring “during the session of the Senate”); 2 Op.
Atty Gen. 525, 527 (1832) (discussing a vacancy that “took
place while the Senate was in session, and not during the
recess”). It is linguistically implausible to suppose—as the
majority does—that the Clause uses one of those terms
(“Recess”) informally and the other (“Session”) formally in
a single sentence, with the result that an event can occur
during both the “Recess” and the “Session.”
Besides being linguistically unsound, the majority’s
reading yields the strange result that an appointment
made during a short break near the beginning of one
official session will not terminate until the end of the
following official session, enabling the appointment to last
for up to two years. The majority justifies that result by
observing that the process of confirming a nominee “may
take several months.” Ante, at 17. But the average dura
tion of the confirmation process is irrelevant. The Clause’s
self-evident design is to have the President’s unilateral
appointment last only until the Senate has “had an oppor
tunity to act on the subject.” 3 J. Story, Commentaries on
the Constitution of the United States §1551, p. 410 (1833)
(emphasis added).
One way to avoid the linguistic incongruity of the major
ity’s reading would be to read both “the Recess” and “the
next Session” colloquially, so that the recess-appointment
power would be activated during any temporary suspen
sion of Senate proceedings, but appointments made pur
suant to that power would last only until the beginning of
the next suspension (which would end the next colloquial
session). See, e.g., Rappaport, The Original Meaning of
the Recess Appointments Clause, 52 UCLA L. Rev. 1487,
1569 (2005) (hereinafter Rappaport, Original Meaning).
That approach would be more linguistically defensible
than the majority’s. But it would not cure the most fun
damental problem with giving “Recess” its colloquial,
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 11
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
rather than its formal, meaning: Doing so leaves the re
cess-appointment power without a textually grounded
principle limiting the time of its exercise.
The dictionary definitions of “recess” on which the ma
jority relies provide no such principle. On the contrary,
they make clear that in colloquial usage, a recess could
include any suspension of legislative business, no
matter how short. See 2 S. Johnson, A Dictionary of the
English Language 1602 (4th ed. 1773). Webster even
provides a stark illustration: “[T]he house of representa
tives had a recess of half an hour.” 2 Webster, supra. The
notion that the Constitution empowers the President to
make unilateral appointments every time the Senate
takes a half-hour lunch break is so absurd as to be self
refuting. But that, in the majority’s view, is what the text
authorizes.
The boundlessness of the colloquial reading of “the
Recess” thus refutes the majority’s assertion that the
Clause’s “purpose” of “ensur[ing] the continued function
ing of the Federal Government” demands that it apply to
intra-session breaks as well as inter-session recesses.
Ante, at 11. The majority disregards another self-evident
purpose of the Clause: to preserve the Senate’s role in the
appointment process—which the founding generation
regarded as a critical protection against “ ‘despotism,’ ”
Freytag, 501 U. S., at 883—by clearly delineating the
times when the President can appoint officers without the
Senate’s consent. Today’s decision seriously undercuts
that purpose. In doing so, it demonstrates the folly of
interpreting constitutional provisions designed to estab
lish “a structure of government that would protect liberty,”
Bowsher, 478 U. S., at 722, on the narrow-minded as
sumption that their only purpose is to make the govern
ment run as efficiently as possible. “Convenience and
efficiency,” we have repeatedly recognized, “are not the
primary objectives” of our constitutional framework. Free
12 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Enterprise Fund, 561 U. S., at 499 (internal quotation
marks omitted).
Relatedly, the majority contends that the Clause’s sup
posed purpose of keeping the wheels of government turn
ing demands that we interpret the Clause to maintain its
relevance in light of the “new circumstance” of the Sen
ate’s taking an increasing number of intra-session breaks
that exceed three days. Ante, at 17. Even if I accepted the
canard that courts can alter the Constitution’s meaning to
accommodate changed circumstances, I would be hard
pressed to see the relevance of that notion here. The rise
of intra-session adjournments has occurred in tandem
with the development of modern forms of communication
and transportation that mean the Senate “is always avail
able” to consider nominations, even when its Members are
temporarily dispersed for an intra-session break. Tr. of
Oral Arg. 21 (GINSBURG, J.). The Recess Appointments
Clause therefore is, or rather, should be, an anachro
nism—“essentially an historic relic, something whose
original purpose has disappeared.” Id., at 19 (KAGAN, J.).
The need it was designed to fill no longer exists, and its
only remaining use is the ignoble one of enabling the
President to circumvent the Senate’s role in the appoint
ment process. That does not justify “read[ing] it out of the
Constitution” and, contra the majority, ante, at 40, I would
not do so; but neither would I distort the Clause’s original
meaning, as the majority does, to ensure a prominent role
for the recess-appointment power in an era when its influ
ence is far more pernicious than beneficial.
To avoid the absurd results that follow from its collo
quial reading of “the Recess,” the majority is forced to declare
that some intra-session breaks—though undisputedly
within the phrase’s colloquial meaning—are simply “too
short to trigger the Recess Appointments Clause.” Ante,
at 21. But it identifies no textual basis whatsoever for
limiting the length of “the Recess,” nor does it point to any
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 13
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
clear standard for determining how short is too short. It is
inconceivable that the Framers would have left the cir
cumstances in which the President could exercise such a
significant and potentially dangerous power so utterly
indeterminate. Other structural provisions of the Consti
tution that turn on duration are quite specific: Neither
House can adjourn “for more than three days” without the
other’s consent. Art. I, §5, cl. 4. The President must
return a passed bill to Congress “within ten Days (Sun
days excepted),” lest it become a law. Id., §7, cl. 2. Yet on
the majority’s view, when the first Senate considered
taking a 1-month break, a 3-day weekend, or a half-hour
siesta, it had no way of knowing whether the President
would be constitutionally authorized to appoint officers in
its absence. And any officers appointed in those circum
stances would have served under a cloud, unable to de
termine with any degree of confidence whether their ap
pointments were valid.3
Fumbling for some textually grounded standard, the
majority seizes on the Adjournments Clause, which bars
either House from adjourning for more than three days
without the other’s consent. Id., §5, cl. 4. According to the
majority, that clause establishes that a 3-day break is
always “too short” to trigger the Recess Appointments
Clause. Ante, at 19. It goes without saying that nothing
——————
3 The majority insists that “the most likely reason the Framers did
not place a textual floor underneath the word ‘recess’ is that they did
not foresee the need for one” because they did not anticipate that intra
session breaks “would become lengthier and more significant than
inter-session ones.” Ante, at 19. The majority’s logic escapes me. The
Framers’ supposed failure to anticipate “length[y]” intra-session breaks
might explain why (as I maintain) they did not bother to authorize
recess appointments during intra-session breaks at all; but it cannot
explain why (as the majority holds) they would have enacted a text that
authorizes appointments during all intra-session breaks—even the
short ones the majority says they did anticipate—without placing a
temporal limitation on that power.
14 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
in the constitutional text supports that disposition. If (as
the majority concludes) “the Recess” means a recess in the
colloquial sense, then it necessarily includes breaks shorter
than three days. And the fact that the Constitution in
cludes a 3-day limit in one clause but omits it from the
other weighs strongly against finding such a limit to be
implicit in the clause in which it does not appear. In all
events, the dramatically different contexts in which the
two clauses operate make importing the 3-day limit from
the Adjournments Clause into the Recess Appointments
Clause “both arbitrary and mistaken.” Rappaport, Origi
nal Meaning 1556.
And what about breaks longer than three days? The
majority says that a break of four to nine days is “pre
sumptively too short” but that the presumption may be
rebutted in an “unusual circumstance,” such as a “national
catastrophe . . . that renders the Senate unavailable but
calls for an urgent response.” Ante, at 21. The majority
must hope that the in terrorem effect of its “presumptively
too short” pronouncement will deter future Presidents
from making any recess appointments during 4-to-9-day
breaks and thus save us from the absurd spectacle of
unelected judges evaluating (after an evidentiary hear
ing?) whether an alleged “catastrophe” was sufficiently
“urgent” to trigger the recess-appointment power. The
majority also says that “political opposition in the Senate
would not qualify as an unusual circumstance.” Ibid. So
if the Senate should refuse to confirm a nominee whom the
President considers highly qualified; or even if it should
refuse to confirm any nominee for an office, thinking the
office better left vacant for the time being; the President’s
power would not be triggered during a 4-to-9-day break, no
matter how “urgent” the President’s perceived need for the
officer’s assistance. (The majority protests that this
“should go without saying—except that JUSTICE SCALIA
compels us to say it,” ibid., seemingly forgetting that the
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 15
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
appointments at issue in this very case were justified on
those grounds and that the Solicitor General has asked us
to view the recess-appointment power as a “safety valve”
against Senatorial “intransigence.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 21.)
As for breaks of 10 or more days: We are presumably to
infer that such breaks do not trigger any “presumpt[ion]”
against recess appointments, but does that mean the
President has an utterly free hand? Or can litigants seek
invalidation of an appointment made during a 10-day
break by pointing to an absence of “unusual” or “urgent”
circumstances necessitating an immediate appointment,
albeit without the aid of a “presumpt[ion]” in their favor?
Or, to put the question as it will present itself to lawyers
in the Executive Branch: Can the President make an
appointment during a 10-day break simply to overcome
“political opposition in the Senate” despite the absence of
any “national catastrophe,” even though it “go[es] without
saying” that he cannot do so during a 9-day break? Who
knows? The majority does not say, and neither does the
Constitution.4
——————
4 The majority erroneously suggests that the “lack of a textual floor
raises a problem that plagues” both interpretations of “the Recess.”
Ante, at 19. Not so. If the Clause is given its plain meaning, the
President cannot make recess appointments during the session but can
make recess appointments during any break between sessions, no
matter how short. Contra the majority, that is not a “problem.” True,
the recess-appointment power applies even during very short inter
session breaks. But inter-session breaks typically occur at most a few
times a year, and the recess-appointment power is of limited utility
during very short inter-session breaks since, as explained below, the
President can fill only those vacancies that arise during the break. See
Part III, infra. Of course, as the Senate Judiciary Committee has
argued, the break must be actual and not “constructive”; the Senate
must adjourn for some measurable period of time between the two
sessions. See infra, at 20–22. But the requirement that there actually
be a recess does not involve anywhere near the level of indeterminacy
entailed by the majority’s requirement that the recess be long enough
(or the circumstances unusual enough), as determined by a court, to
16 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Even if the many questions raised by the majority’s
failure to articulate a standard could be answered, a
larger question would remain: If the Constitution’s text
empowers the President to make appointments during any
break in the Senate’s proceedings, by what right does the
majority subject the President’s exercise of that power to
vague, court-crafted limitations with no textual basis?
The majority claims its temporal guideposts are informed
by executive practice, but a President’s self-restraint
cannot “bind his successors by diminishing their powers.”
Free Enterprise Fund, 561 U. S., at 497; cf. Clinton v.
Jones, 520 U. S. 681, 718 (1997) (BREYER, J., concurring in
judgment) (“voluntary actions” by past Presidents “tel[l] us
little about what the Constitution commands”).
An interpretation that calls for this kind of judicial
adventurism cannot be correct. Indeed, if the Clause
really did use “Recess” in its colloquial sense, then there
would be no “judicially discoverable and manageable
standard for resolving” whether a particular break was
long enough to trigger the recess-appointment power,
making that a nonjusticiable political question. Zivo
tofsky, 566 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 5) (internal quotation
marks omitted).
B. Historical Practice
For the foregoing reasons, the Constitution’s text and
structure unambiguously refute the majority’s freewheel
ing interpretation of “the Recess.” It is not plausible that
the Constitution uses that term in a sense that authorizes
the President to make unilateral appointments during any
break in Senate proceedings, subject only to hazy, atextual
limits crafted by this Court centuries after ratification.
The majority, however, insists that history “offers strong
support” for its interpretation. Ante, at 11. The historical
——————
trigger the recess-appointment power.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 17
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
practice of the political branches is, of course, irrelevant
when the Constitution is clear. But even if the Constitu
tion were thought ambiguous on this point, history does
not support the majority’s interpretation.
1. 1789 to 1866
To begin, the majority dismisses the 78 years of history
from the founding through 1866 as “not helpful” because
during that time Congress took hardly any “significant”
intra-session breaks, by which the majority evidently
means breaks longer than three days. Ibid. (citing table in
Appendix A, which does not include breaks of three or
fewer days). In fact, Congress took 11 intra-session breaks
of more than three days during that time, see Congres
sional Directory 524–527, and it appears Presidents made
recess appointments during none of them.
More importantly, during those eight decades, Congress
must have taken thousands of breaks that were three days
or shorter. On the majority’s reading, every one of those
breaks would have been within the Clause’s text—the
majority’s newly minted limitation not yet having been
announced. Yet there is no record of anyone, ever, having
so much as mentioned the possibility that the recess
appointment power was activated during those breaks.
That would be surprising indeed if the text meant what
the majority thinks it means. Cf. Printz v. United States,
521 U. S. 898, 907–908 (1997).
2. 1867 and 1868
The first intra-session recess appointments in our his
tory almost certainly were made by President Andrew John
son in 1867 and 1868.5 That was, of course, a period of
——————
5 The majority does not contend otherwise. The Solicitor General
claims that President Lincoln appointed a handful of brigadier generals
during intra-session breaks in 1862 and 1863, but he does not include
those appointments in his list of known intra-session recess appoint
18 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
dramatic conflict between the Executive and Congress
that saw the first-ever impeachment of a sitting President.
The Solicitor General counts 57 intra-session recess ap
pointments during those two years. App. to Brief for
Petitioner 1a–9a. But the precise nature and historical
understanding of many of those appointments is subject to
debate. See, e.g., Brief for Constitutional Law Scholars as
Amici Curiae 23–24; Rappaport, Nonoriginalism 27–33. It
seems likely that at least 36 of the 57 appointments were
made with the understanding that they took place during
a recess between sessions. See id., at 27–31.
As for the remainder, the historical record reveals noth
ing about how they were justified, if at all. There is no
indication that Johnson’s Attorney General or anyone else
considered at the time whether those appointments were
made between or during formal legislative sessions or, if
the latter, how they could be squared with the constitu
tional text. The majority drives that point home by citing
a judicial opinion that upheld one of the appointments
nearly two decades later with no analysis of the question
presented here. See ante, at 11 (citing Gould v. United
States, 19 Ct. Cl. 593 (1884)). Johnson’s intra-session
appointments were disavowed by the first Attorney Gen
eral to address that question, see infra, at 20, and were
not followed as precedent by the Executive Branch for
more than 50 years, see infra, at 22. Thus, the relevance
of those appointments to our constitutional inquiry is
——————
ments. Compare Brief for Petitioner 22 with App. to Brief for Petitioner
1a. Noel Canning convincingly argues that the generals were not given
recess appointments but only unofficial “acting appointments” for
which they received no commissions. Brief for Respondent Noel Can
ning 25; see Rappaport, Why Nonoriginalism Does Not Justify Depart
ing from the Original Meaning of the Recess Appointments Clause
(manuscript, at 27, n. 79) (hereinafter Rappaport, Nonoriginalism),
online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2374563
(all Internet materials as visited June 24, 2014, and available in the
Clerk of Court’s case file).
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 19
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
severely limited. Cf. Brief for Political Scientists and
Historians as Amici Curiae 21 (Johnson’s appointments
“should be viewed as anomalies” that were “sui generis in
the first 130 years of the Republic”).
3. 1869 to 1920
More than half a century went by before any other
President made an intra-session recess appointment, and
there is strong reason to think that during that period
neither the Executive nor the Senate believed such a
power existed. For one thing, the Senate adjourned for
more than 3 days 45 times during that period, and 43 of
those adjournments exceeded 10 days (and thus would not
even be subject to the majority’s “presumption” against
the availability of recess appointments). See Congres
sional Directory 527–529. Yet there is no evidence that a
single appointment was made during any of those ad
journments or that any President before the 20th century
even considered making such appointments.
In 1901 Philander Knox, the first Attorney General
known to have opined on the question, explicitly stated
that the recess-appointment power was limited to the
period between formal sessions. 23 Op. Atty. Gen. 599.
Knox advised President Theodore Roosevelt that he could
not appoint an appraiser of merchandise during an intra
session adjournment. He explained:
“[T]he Constitution and laws make it clear that in our
legislative practice an adjournment during a session
of Congress means a merely temporary suspension of
business from day to day . . . whereas the recess means
the period after the final adjournment of Congress for
the session, and before the next session begins. . . . It
is this period following the final adjournment for the
session which is the recess during which the President
has power to fill vacancies . . . . Any intermediate
temporary adjournment is not such recess, although it
20 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
may be a recess in the general and ordinary use of
that term.” Id., at 601.6
Knox went on to observe that none of the “many elaborate
opinions” of previous Attorneys General concerning the
recess-appointment power had asserted that the power
could be exercised “during a temporary adjournment of the
Senate,” rather than “during the recess of the Senate
between two sessions of Congress.” Id., at 602. He
acknowledged the contrary example furnished by John
son’s appointments in 1867 and 1868, but noted (with
perhaps too much tact) that “[t]he public circumstances
producing this state of affairs were unusual and involved
results which should not be viewed as precedents.” Id.,
at 603.
That was where things stood when, in 1903, Roosevelt
made a number of controversial recess appointments. At
noon on December 7, the Senate moved seamlessly from a
special session into a regular one scheduled to begin at
that hour. See 37 Cong. Rec. 544; 38 Cong. Rec. 1. Roose
velt claimed to have made the appointments in a “con
structive” recess between the two sessions. See Special
Session Is Merged Into Regular, N. Y. Times, Dec. 8, 1903,
p. 1. He and his allies in the Senate justified the ap
pointments on the theory that “at the moment the gavel
falls to summon the regular session into being there is an
infinitesimal fraction of a second, which is the recess
between the two sessions.” Extra Session Muddle, N. Y.
Times, Dec. 7, 1903, p. 3. In 1905, the Senate Judiciary
Committee published a report criticizing the appointments
on the ground that “the Constitution means a real recess,
——————
6 The majority dismisses Knox’s opinion as overly formalistic because
it “relied heavily upon the use of the word ‘the’ ” in the phrase “the
Recess.” Ante, at 13. It did not. As the passage quoted above makes
clear, Knox was relying on the common understanding of what “the
Recess” meant in the context of marking out legislative time.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 21
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
not a constructive one.” S. Rep. No. 4389, 58th Cong., 3d
Sess., p. 4. The report explained that the recess is “the
period of time when the Senate is not sitting in regular or
extraordinary session . . . when its members owe no duty
of attendance; when its Chamber is empty; when, because
of its absence, it can not receive communications from the
President or participate as a body in making appoint
ments.” Id., at 2 (emphasis deleted).
The majority seeks support in this episode, claiming
that the Judiciary Committee embraced a “broad and
functional definition of ‘recess’ ” consistent with the one
the majority adopts. Ante, at 16. On the contrary, the
episode powerfully refutes the majority’s theory. Roosevelt’s
legal justification for his appointments was extremely
aggressive, but even he recognized that “the Recess of
the Senate” could take place only between formal sessions.
If the majority’s view of the Clause had been considered
plausible, Roosevelt could have strengthened his position
considerably by making the appointments during an intra
session break of a few days, or at least a few hours. (Just
10 minutes after the new session began on December 7,
the Senate took “a recess for one hour.” 38 Cong. Rec. 2.)
That he instead strained to declare a dubious inter-session
recess of an “infinitesimal fraction of a second” is powerful
evidence that the majority’s view of “the Recess” was not
taken seriously even as late as the beginning of the 20th
century.
Yet the majority contends that “to the extent that the
Senate or a Senate committee has expressed a view, that
view has favored a functional definition of ‘recess’ [that]
encompasses intra-session recesses.” Ante, at 14. It rests
that contention entirely on the 1905 Judiciary Committee
Report. This distorts what the committee said when it
denied Roosevelt’s claim that there had been a recess. If
someone avers that a catfish is a cat, and I respond by
pointing out that a catfish lives in water and does not have
22 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
four legs, I have not endorsed the proposition that every
land-dwelling quadruped is a cat. Likewise, when the
Judiciary Committee explained that an instantaneous
transition from one session to another is not a recess
because the Senate is never absent, it did not suggest that
the Senate’s absence is enough to create a recess. To
assume otherwise, as the majority does, is to commit the
fallacy of the inverse (otherwise known as denying the
antecedent): the incorrect assumption that if P implies Q,
then not-P implies not-Q. Contrary to that fallacious
assumption, the Judiciary Committee surely believed,
consistent with the Executive’s clear position at the time,
that “the Recess” was limited to (actual, not constructive)
breaks between sessions.
4. 1921 to the Present
It is necessary to skip over the first 13 decades of our
Nation’s history in order to find a Presidential legal ad
viser arguably embracing the majority’s interpretation of
“the Recess.” In 1921 President Harding’s Attorney General,
Harry Daugherty, advised Harding that he could make
recess appointments while the Senate stood adjourned for
28 days during the session because “the term ‘recess’ must
be given a practical construction.” 33 Op. Atty. Gen. 20,
25. Daugherty acknowledged Knox’s 1901 opinion to the
contrary, id., at 21, but he (committing the same fallacy as
today’s majority) thought the 1905 Judiciary Committee
report had come to the opposite conclusion, id., at 23–24.
He also recognized the fundamental flaw in this interpre
tation: that it would be impossible to “accurately dra[w]” a
line between intra-session breaks that constitute “the
Recess” and those that do not. Id., at 25. But he thought
the absence of a standard gave the President “discretion to
determine when there is a real and genuine recess.” Ibid.
While a “palpable abuse of discretion might subject his
appointment to review,” Daugherty thought that “[e]very
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 23
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
presumption [should] be indulged in favor of the validity of
whatever action he may take.” Ibid.7
Only after Daugherty’s opinion did the flow of intra
session recess appointments start, and for several years it
was little more than a trickle. The Solicitor General has
identified 22 such appointments made by Presidents
Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and Franklin Roosevelt be
tween 1921 and 1944. App. to Brief for Petitioner 9a–12a.
Intra-session recess appointments experienced a brief
heyday after World War II, with President Truman mak
ing about 150 such appointments to civilian positions and
several thousand to military posts from 1945 through
1950. Id., at 12a–27a. (The majority’s impressive
sounding claim that “Presidents have made thousands of
intra-session recess appointments,” ante, at 12, depends
entirely on post-war military appointments that Truman
made in just two years, 1947 and 1948.) President Eisen
hower made only 43 intra-session recess appointments,
id., at 27a–30a, after which the practice sank back into
relative obscurity. Presidents Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson,
and Ford made none, while Nixon made just 7. Id., at
30a–31a. The practice rose again in the last decades of
the 20th century: President Carter made 17 intra-session
recess appointments, Reagan 72, George H. W. Bush 37,
Clinton 53, and George W. Bush 135. Id., at 31a–61a.
When the Solicitor General filed his brief, President
Obama had made 26. Id., at 62a–64a. Even excluding
Truman’s military appointments, roughly 90 percent of all
the intra-session recess appointments in our history have
been made since 1945.
——————
7 I say Daugherty “arguably” embraced the majority’s view because he
may have been endorsing, not the majority’s position, but the interme
diate view that reads both “the Recess” and “the next Session” in
functional terms, so that intra-session appointments would last only
until the next intra-session break. See supra, at 10; Rappaport, Non
originalism 34–35.
24 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Legal advisers in the Executive Branch during this
period typically endorsed the President’s authority to
make intra-session recess appointments by citing Daugh
erty’s opinion with little or no additional analysis. See,
e.g., 20 Opinions of Office of Legal Counsel (Op. OLC) 124,
161 (1996) (finding the question to have been “settled
within the executive branch” by Daugherty’s “often-cited
opinion”). The majority’s contention that “opinions of
Presidential legal advisers . . . are nearly unanimous in
determining that the Clause authorizes [intra-session
recess] appointments,” ante, at 12, is thus true but mis
leading: No Presidential legal adviser approved that prac
tice before 1921, and subsequent approvals have rested
more on precedent than on independent examination.
The majority is correct that during this period, the
Senate “as a body” did not formally repudiate the emerg
ing executive practice. Ante, at 14. And on one occasion,
Comptroller General Lindsay Warren cited Daugherty’s
opinion as representing “the accepted view” on the ques
tion, 28 Comp. Gen. 30, 34 (1948), although there is no
evidence he consulted any Senators or that his statement
reflected their views. But the rise of intra-session recess
appointments in the latter half of the 20th century drew
sharp criticism from a number of Senators on both sides of
the aisle. At first, their objections focused on the length of
the intra-session breaks at issue. See, e.g., 130 Cong. Rec.
22774–22776 (1984) (Sen. Sarbanes) (decrying recess
appointment during a 3-week intra-session adjournment
as “a circumvention of the Senate confirmation power”);
id., at 23235 (resolution offered by Sen. Byrd, with 39
cosponsors, urging that no recess appointments occur
during intra-session breaks of fewer than 30 days).
Later, many Senators sought to end intra-session recess
appointments altogether. In 1993, the Senate Legal
Counsel prepared a brief to be filed on behalf of the Senate
in Mackie v. Clinton, 827 F. Supp. 56 (DC 1993), vacated
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 25
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
in part as moot, 1994 WL 163761 (CADC 1994) (per
curiam), but “Republican opposition” blocked the filing.
139 Cong. Rec. 15266–15267. The brief argued that “the
recess[-appointment] power is limited to Congress’ annual
recess between sessions,” that no contrary executive prac
tice “of any appreciable magnitude” had existed before
“the past fifty years,” and that the Senate had not “acqui
esced in this steady expansion of presidential power.” Id.,
at 15268, 15270. It explained that some Senators had
limited their objections to shorter intra-session breaks out
of a desire “to coexist with the Executive” but that “the
Executive’s subsequent, steady chipping away at the
length of recess sufficient for making recess appointments
ha[d] demonstrated the need to return to the Framers’
original intent and limit the power to intersession ad
journments.” Id., at 15267, 15272. Senator Kennedy
reiterated that position in a brief to this Court in 2004.
Brief for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as Amicus Curiae in
Franklin v. United States, O. T. 2004, No. 04–5858, p. 5.
Today the partisan tables are turned, and that position is
urged on us by the Senate’s Republican Members. See
Brief for Sen. McConnell et al. as Amici Curiae 26.
* * *
What does all this amount to? In short: Intra-session
recess appointments were virtually unheard of for the first
130 years of the Republic, were deemed unconstitutional
by the first Attorney General to address them, were not
openly defended by the Executive until 1921, were not
made in significant numbers until after World War II, and
have been repeatedly criticized as unconstitutional by
Senators of both parties. It is astonishing for the majority
to assert that this history lends “strong support,” ante, at
11, to its interpretation of the Recess Appointments
Clause. And the majority’s contention that recent execu
tive practice in this area merits deference because the
26 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Senate has not done more to oppose it is utterly divorced
from our precedent. “The structural interests protected by
the Appointments Clause are not those of any one branch
of Government but of the entire Republic,” Freytag, 501
U. S., at 880, and the Senate could not give away those
protections even if it wanted to. See Chadha, 462 U. S., at
957–958; Clinton, 524 U. S., at 451–452 (KENNEDY, J.,
concurring).
Moreover, the majority’s insistence that the Senate
gainsay an executive practice “as a body” in order to pre
vent the Executive from acquiring power by adverse pos
session, ante, at 14, will systematically favor the expansion
of executive power at the expense of Congress. In any con
troversy between the political branches over a separation
of-powers question, staking out a position and defending
it over time is far easier for the Executive Branch than
for the Legislative Branch. See generally Bradley and
Morrison, Historical Gloss and the Separation of Powers,
126 Harv. L. Rev. 411, 439–447 (2012). All Presidents
have a high interest in expanding the powers of their
office, since the more power the President can wield, the
more effectively he can implement his political agenda;
whereas individual Senators may have little interest in
opposing Presidential encroachment on legislative prerog
atives, especially when the encroacher is a President who
is the leader of their own party. (The majority would not
be able to point to a lack of “formal action” by the Senate
“as a body” challenging intra-session recess appointments,
ante, at 15–16, had the appointing President’s party in the
Senate not blocked such action on multiple occasions.)
And when the President wants to assert a power and
establish a precedent, he faces neither the collective-action
problems nor the procedural inertia inherent in the legis
lative process. The majority’s methodology thus all but
guarantees the continuing aggrandizement of the Execu
tive Branch.
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 27
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
III. Pre-Recess Vacancies
The second question presented is whether vacancies
that “happen during the Recess of the Senate,” which the
President is empowered to fill with recess appointments,
are (a) vacancies that arise during the recess, or (b) all
vacancies that exist during the recess, regardless of when
they arose. I would hold that the recess-appointment
power is limited to vacancies that arise during the recess
in which they are filled, and I would hold that the ap
pointments at issue here—which undisputedly filled pre
recess vacancies—are invalid for that reason as well as for
the reason that they were made during the session. The
Court’s contrary conclusion is inconsistent with the Con
stitution’s text and structure, and it further undermines
the balance the Framers struck between Presidential and
Senatorial power. Historical practice also fails to support
the majority’s conclusion on this issue.
A. Plain Meaning
As the majority concedes, “the most natural meaning of
‘happens’ as applied to a ‘vacancy’ . . . is that the vacancy
‘happens’ when it initially occurs.” Ante, at 22. The ma
jority adds that this meaning is most natural “to a modern
ear,” ibid., but it fails to show that founding-era ears
heard it differently. “Happen” meant then, as it does now,
“[t]o fall out; to chance; to come to pass.” 1 Johnson, Dic
tionary of the English Language 913. Thus, a vacancy
that happened during the Recess was most reasonably
understood as one that arose during the recess. It was, of
course, possible in certain contexts for the word “happen”
to mean “happen to be” rather than “happen to occur,” as
in the idiom “it so happens.” But that meaning is not at
all natural when the subject is a vacancy, a state of affairs
that comes into existence at a particular moment in time.8
——————
8 Despite initially admitting that the text “does not naturally favor”
28 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
In any event, no reasonable reader would have under
stood the Recess Appointments Clause to use the word
“happen” in the majority’s “happen to be” sense, and thus
to empower the President to fill all vacancies that might
exist during a recess, regardless of when they arose. For
one thing, the Clause’s language would have been a sur
passingly odd way of giving the President that power. The
Clause easily could have been written to convey that
meaning clearly: It could have referred to “all Vacancies
that may exist during the Recess,” or it could have omitted
the qualifying phrase entirely and simply authorized the
President to “fill up all Vacancies during the Recess.”
Given those readily available alternative phrasings, the
reasonable reader might have wondered, why would any
intelligent drafter intending the majority’s reading have
inserted the words “that may happen”—words that, as the
majority admits, make the majority’s desired reading
awkward and unnatural, and that must be effectively read
out of the Clause to achieve that reading?
For another thing, the majority’s reading not only
strains the Clause’s language but distorts its constitutional
role, which was meant to be subordinate. As Hamilton
explained, appointment with the advice and consent of the
Senate was to be “the general mode of appointing officers
of the United States.” The Federalist No. 67, at 455. The
Senate’s check on the President’s appointment power was
seen as vital because “ ‘manipulation of official appoint
ments’ had long been one of the American revolutionary
——————
its interpretation, the majority halfheartedly suggests that the “ ‘hap
pen to be’ ” reading may be admissible when the subject, like “vacancy,”
denotes a “continuing state.” Ante, at 22–23. That suggestion distorts
ordinary English usage. It is indeed natural to say that an ongoing
activity or event, like a war, a parade, or a financial crisis, is “happen
ing” for as long as it continues. But the same is not true when the
subject is a settled state of affairs, like death, marriage, or vacancy, all
of which “happen” when they come into being.
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
generation’s greatest grievances against executive power.”
Freytag, 501 U. S., at 883. The unilateral power conferred
on the President by the Recess Appointments Clause was
therefore understood to be “nothing more than a supple
ment” to the “general method” of advice and consent. The
Federalist No. 67, at 455.
If, however, the Clause had allowed the President to fill
all pre-existing vacancies during the recess by granting
commissions that would last throughout the following
session, it would have been impossible to regard it—as the
Framers plainly did—as a mere codicil to the Constitu
tion’s principal, power-sharing scheme for filling federal
offices. On the majority’s reading, the President would
have had no need ever to seek the Senate’s advice and
consent for his appointments: Whenever there was a fair
prospect of the Senate’s rejecting his preferred nominee,
the President could have appointed that individual unilat
erally during the recess, allowed the appointment to ex
pire at the end of the next session, renewed the appoint
ment the following day, and so on ad infinitum.
(Circumvention would have been especially easy if, as the
majority also concludes, the President was authorized to
make such appointments during any intra-session break of
more than a few days.) It is unthinkable that such an
obvious means for the Executive to expand its power
would have been overlooked during the ratification
debates.9
——————
9 The majority insists that “character and politics” will ordinarily
prevent the President from circumventing the Senate, and that the
Senate has “political resources” to respond to attempts at circumven
tion. Ante, at 25. Neither character nor politics prevented Theodore
Roosevelt from proclaiming a fictitious recess lasting an “infinitesimal
fraction of a second.” In any event, the Constitution does not entrust
the Senate’s role in the appointments process to the vagaries of charac
ter and politics. See, e.g., Freytag v. Commissioner, 501 U. S. 868, 879–
880 (1991).
30 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
The original understanding of the Clause was consistent
with what the majority concedes is the text’s “most natu
ral meaning.” Ante, at 22. In 1792, Attorney General
Edmund Randolph, who had been a leading member of the
Constitutional Convention, provided the Executive
Branch’s first formal interpretation of the Clause. He
advised President Washington that the Constitution did
not authorize a recess appointment to fill the office of
Chief Coiner of the United States Mint, which had been
created by Congress on April 2, 1792, during the Senate’s
session. Randolph wrote: “[I]s it a vacancy which has
happened during the recess of the Senate? It is now the
same and no other vacancy, than that, which existed on
the 2nd. of April 1792. It commenced therefore on that
day or may be said to have happened on that day.” Opin
ion on Recess Appointments (July 7, 1792), in 24 Papers of
Thomas Jefferson 165–166 (J. Catanzariti ed. 1990).
Randolph added that his interpretation was the most
congruent with the Constitution’s structure, which made
the recess-appointment power “an exception to the general
participation of the Senate.” Ibid. (footnote omitted).
President John Adams’ Attorney General, Charles Lee,
was in agreement. See Letter to George Washington (July
7, 1796) (the President may “fill for a limited time an old
office become vacant during [the] recess” (emphasis add
ed)), online at http://founders.archives.gov/documents/
Washington/99-01-02-00702; Letter from James McHenry
to John Adams (May 7, 1799) (hereinafter 1799 McHenry
Letter) (conveying Lee’s advice that certain offices were
“ ‘vacanc[ies] happening during the session, which the
President cannot fill, during the recess, by the powers
vested in him by the constitution’ ”), online at http://
wardepartmentpapers.org/document.php?id=31766.10 One
——————
10 The majority does not deny that Lee took those positions, but it
claims he also “later informed [Thomas] Jefferson that, in the Adams
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
of the most prominent early academic commenters on the
Constitution read the Clause the same way. See 1 St.
George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries, App. 342–343
(1803) (assuming the President could appoint during the
recess only if “the office became vacant during the recess”).
Early Congresses seem to have shared Randolph’s and
Lee’s view. A statute passed by the First Congress author
ized the President to appoint customs inspectors “with the
advice and consent of the Senate” and provided that “if the
appointment . . . shall not be made during the present
session of Congress, the President . . . is hereby empow
ered to make such appointments during the recess of the
Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the
end of their next session.” Act of Mar. 3, 1791, §4, 1 Stat.
200. That authorization would have been superfluous if
the Recess Appointments Clause had been understood to
apply to pre-existing vacancies. We have recognized that
an action taken by the First Congress “provides ‘contem
poraneous and weighty evidence’ of the Constitution’s
meaning.” Bowsher, 478 U. S., at 723–724. And other
statutes passed in the early years of the Republic con
tained similar authorizations. See App. to Brief for Re
——————
administration, ‘whenever an office became vacant, so short a time
before Congress rose, as not to give an opportunity of enquiring for a
proper character, they let it lie always till recess.’ ” Ante, at 27 (quoting
Letter from Jefferson to Wilson Cary Nicholas (Jan. 26, 1802), in 36
Papers of Thomas Jefferson 433 (B. Oberg ed. 2009) (hereinafter 1802
Jefferson Letter)). Assuming Lee in fact made the statement attributed
to him by Jefferson, and further assuming that Lee endorsed the
constitutionality of the practice described in that statement (which
Jefferson does not say), that practice could only have been regarded as
a pragmatic exception to the general view of the Clause that Lee, like
Randolph, espoused. And the practice must not have been extensive,
since the Solicitor General has been unable to identify even a single
appointment made by Adams that filled a pre-recess vacancy. See
infra, at 36.
32 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
spondent Noel Canning 1a–17a.11
Also illuminating is the way the Third Congress inter
preted the Constitution’s Senate Vacancies Clause, which
uses language similar to that of the Recess Appointments
Clause. Before the passage of the Seventeenth Amend
ment, the Constitution provided that “if Vacancies [in the
Senate] happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the
Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive
thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next
Meeting of the Legislature.” Art. I, §3, cl. 2. Senator
George Read of Delaware resigned in December 1793; the
state legislature met in January and February 1794; and
the Governor appointed Kensey Johns to fill the seat in
March 1794. The Senate refused to seat Johns, resolving
that he was “not entitled to a seat in the Senate of the
United States; a session of the Legislature of the said
State having intervened, between the resignation . . . and
——————
11 The majority suggests that these statutes may have reflected, not a
belief that the recess-appointment power was limited to vacancies
arising during the recess, but a “separate” belief that the power could
not be used for “new offices” created by Congress and not previously
filled. Ante, at 30. But the latter view (which the majority does not
endorse) was inseparably linked with the former (which the majority
rejects), as is made clear by the very source the majority cites. See
Letter from Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry (May 3, 1799), in
23 Papers of Alexander Hamilton 94 (H. Syrett ed. 1976) (“[T]he power
to fill the vacancy is not the power to make an original appointment.
The phrase ‘Which may have happened’ serves to confirm this construc
tion. . . . [I]ndependent of the authority of a special law, the President
cannot fill a vacancy which happens during a session of the Senate”);
see also 2 Op. Atty. Gen., at 334 (“If the vacancy exist during the
session of the Senate, as in the first creation of an office by law, it has
been held that the President cannot appoint during the recess, unless
he is specially authorized so to do by law”); W. Rawle, A View of the
Constitution of the United States of America 163 (2d ed. 1829) (reprint
2009) (“It has been held by [the Senate], that if new offices are created
by congress, the president cannot, after the adjournment of the senate,
make appointments to fill them. The vacancies do not happen during
the recess of the senate”).
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
the appointment.” 4 Annals of Cong. 77–78 (1794). It is
thus clear that the phrase “happen . . . during the Recess”
in the Senate Vacancies Clause was understood to refer to
vacancies that arose, not merely existed, during the recess
in which the appointment was made. It is not apparent
why the nearly identical language of the Recess Appoint
ments Clause would have been understood differently.
The majority, however, relies heavily on a contrary
account of the Clause given by Attorney General William
Wirt in 1823. See 1 Op. Atty. Gen 631. Wirt notably
began—as does the majority—by acknowledging that his
predecessors’ reading was “most accordant with the letter
of the constitution.” Id., at 632. But he thought the “most
natural” reading had to be rejected because it would inter
fere with the “substantial purpose of the constitution,”
namely, “keep[ing] . . . offices filled.” Id., at 631–632. He
was chiefly concerned that giving the Clause its plain
meaning would produce “embarrassing inconveniences” if
a distant office were to become vacant during the Senate’s
session, but news of the vacancy were not to reach the
President until the recess. Id., at 632, 634. The majority
fully embraces Wirt’s reasoning. Ante, at 22–25.
Wirt’s argument is doubly flawed. To begin, the Consti
tution provides ample means, short of rewriting its text,
for dealing with the hypothetical dilemma Wirt posed.
Congress can authorize “acting” officers to perform the
duties associated with a temporarily vacant office—and
has done that, in one form or another, since 1792. See 5
U. S. C. §3345; Act of May 8, 1792, ch. 37, §8, 1 Stat. 281;
705 F. 3d, at 511; Rappaport, Original Meaning 1514–
1517. And on “extraordinary Occasions” the President can
call the Senate back into session to consider a nomination.
Art. II, §3. If the Framers had thought those options
insufficient and preferred to authorize the President to
make recess appointments to fill vacancies arising late in
the session, they would have known how to do so. Massa
34 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
chusetts, for example, had authorized its Governor to
make certain recess appointments “in case a vacancy shall
happen . . . in the recess of the General Court [i.e., the
state legislature], or at so late a period in any session of
the same Court, that the vacancy . . . shall not be supplied
in the same session thereof.” 1783 Mass. Acts ch. 12, in
Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
523 (1890) (emphasis added).
The majority protests that acting appointments, unlike
recess appointments, are an “inadequate” solution to
Wirt’s hypothetical dilemma because acting officers “may
have less authority than Presidential appointments.”
Ante, at 24–25. It cites an OLC opinion which states that
“an acting officer . . . is frequently considered merely a
caretaker without a mandate to take far-reaching
measures.” 6 Op. OLC 119, 121 (1982). But just a few
lines later, the majority says that “the lack of Senate
approval . . . may diminish the recess appointee’s ability,
as a practical matter, to get a controversial job done.”
Ante, at 25. The majority does not explain why an acting
officer would have less authority “as a practical matter”
than a recess appointee. The majority also objects that
requiring the President to rely on acting officers would
“lessen the President’s ability to staff the Executive
Branch with people of his own choosing,” ante, at 24—a
surprising charge, since that is the very purpose of the
Constitution’s advice-and-consent requirement. As for
special sessions, the majority thinks it a sufficient answer
to say that they are “burdensome,” ibid., an observation
that fails to distinguish them from many procedures re
quired by our structural Constitution.
More fundamentally, Wirt and the majority are mistaken
to say that the Constitution’s “ ‘substantial purpose’ ” is
to “ ‘keep . . . offices filled.’ ” Ibid. (quoting 1 Op. Atty.
Gen., at 632). The Constitution is not a road map for
maximally efficient government, but a system of “carefully
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
crafted restraints” designed to “protect the people from the
improvident exercise of power.” Chadha, 462 U. S., at
957, 959. Wirt’s and the majority’s argumentum ab incon
venienti thus proves far too much. There are many cir
cumstances other than a vacancy that can produce similar
inconveniences if they arise late in the session: For exam
ple, a natural disaster might occur to which the Executive
cannot respond effectively without a supplemental appro
priation. But in those circumstances, the Constitution
would not permit the President to appropriate funds him
self. See Art. I, §9, cl. 7. Congress must either anticipate
such eventualities or be prepared to be haled back into
session. The troublesome need to do so is not a bug to be
fixed by this Court, but a calculated feature of the consti
tutional framework. As we have recognized, while the
Constitution’s government-structuring provisions can
seem “clumsy” and “inefficient,” they reflect “hard choices
. . . consciously made by men who had lived under a form
of government that permitted arbitrary governmental acts
to go unchecked.” Chadha, supra, at 959.
B. Historical Practice
For the reasons just given, it is clear that the Constitu
tion authorizes the President to fill unilaterally only those
vacancies that arise during a recess, not every vacancy
that happens to exist during a recess. Again, however, the
majority says “[h]istorical practice” requires the broader
interpretation. Ante, at 26. And again the majority
is mistaken. Even if the Constitution were wrongly
thought to be ambiguous on this point, a fair recounting
of the relevant history does not support the majority’s
interpretation.
1. 1789 to 1822
The majority correctly admits that there is “no undis
puted record of Presidents George Washington, John
36 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Adams, or Thomas Jefferson” using a recess appointment
to fill a pre-recess vacancy. Ibid. That is not surprising in
light of Randolph’s early conclusion that doing so would be
unconstitutional. Adams on one occasion contemplated
filling pre-recess vacancies but was dissuaded by, among
others, Attorney General Lee, who said the Constitution
did not permit him to do so. See 1799 McHenry Letter.12
And the Solicitor General does not allege that even a
single appointment made by Adams filled a pre-recess
vacancy. Jefferson, too, at one point thought the Clause
“susceptible of ” the majority’s reading, 1802 Jefferson
Letter, but his administration, like Adams’, appears never
to have adopted that reading.
James Madison’s administration seems to have rejected
the majority’s reading as well. In 1814, Madison wanted
to appoint Andrew Jackson to a vacant major-generalship
in the Army during the Senate’s recess, but he accepted,
without contradiction or reservation, his Secretary of
War’s advice that he lacked the power to do so because the
post’s previous occupant had resigned before the recess.
He therefore ordered that Jackson be given a “brevet of
Major General,” i.e., a warrant conferring the nominal
rank without the salary thereof. Letter from John Arm
strong to Madison (May 14, 1814); Letter from Madison to
——————
12 See also Letter from Adams to James McHenry (April 16, 1799), in
8 Works of John Adams 632 (C. Adams ed. 1853) (proposing the ap
pointments); Letter from Adams to McHenry (May 16, 1799), in id., at
647 (agreeing to “suspend [the appointments] for the present, perhaps
till the meeting of the Senate”). Before advising Adams, McHenry also
consulted Alexander Hamilton, who agreed that the appointments
would be unlawful. See Letter from McHenry to Hamilton (Apr. 26,
1799), in 23 Papers of Alexander Hamilton, at 69, 70 (“It would seem
that, under this Constitutional power, the President cannot alone . . .
fill up vacancies that may happen during a session of the senate”);
Letter from Hamilton to McHenry (May 3, 1799), in id., at 94 (“It is
clear, that independent of the authority of a special law, the President
cannot fill a vacancy which happens during a session of the Senate”).
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Armstrong (May 17, 1814). In conveying the brevet, Mad
ison’s Secretary of War explained to Jackson that “ ‘[t]he
vacancy produced by General Hampton’s resignation, not
having been filled during the late session of the Senate,
cannot be supplied constitutionally, during the recess.’ ”
Letter from Armstrong to Jackson (May 22, 1814). A week
later, when Madison learned that a different major gen
eral had resigned during the recess, he thought that de
velopment would enable him to appoint Jackson “at once.”
Letter from Madison to Armstrong (May 24, 1814); see
Letter from Armstrong to Madison (May 20, 1814) (report
ing the resignation).13
The majority discounts that evidence of an occasion
when Madison and his advisers actually considered the
precise constitutional question presented here. It does so
apparently because Madison, in acting on the advice he
was given without questioning the interpretation of the
recess-appointment power that was offered as the reason
for that advice, did not explicitly say “I agree.” The major
ity prefers to focus on five appointments by Madison,
unremarked by anyone at the time, that “the evidence
suggests” filled pre-recess vacancies. Ante, at 27. Even if
the majority is correct about those appointments, there is
no indication that any thought was given to their constitu
tionality, either within or outside the Executive Branch. A
handful of appointments that appear to contravene the
written opinions of Attorneys General Randolph and Lee
and the written evidence of Madison’s own beliefs about
what the Constitution authorized, and that lack any con
temporaneous explanation, are not convincing evidence of
the Constitution’s original meaning.14
——————
13 All the letters cited in this paragraph are available online
courtesy of the Library of Congress. See James Madison Papers,
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/madison_papers.
14 The same can be said of the Solicitor General’s claim to have found
two recess appointments by Washington and four by Jefferson that
38 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
If Madison or his predecessors made any appointments
in reliance on the broader reading, those appointments
must have escaped general notice. In 1822, the Senate
Committee on Military Affairs declared that the President
had “no power to make [appointments] in the recess”
where “the vacancies did not happen in the recess.” 38
Annals of Cong. 500. The Committee believed its con
struction had been “heretofore observed” and that “no
instance ha[d] before occurred . . . where the President
ha[d] felt himself authorized to fill such vacancies, without
special authority by law.” Ibid.; see also T. Sergeant,
Constitutional Law 373 (2d ed. 1830) (“[I]t seemed dis
tinctly understood to be the sense of the senate, that [it]
is only in offices that become vacant during the recess,
that the president is authorised to exercise the right of
appointing”).
2. 1823 to 1862
The Executive Branch did not openly depart from Ran
dolph and Lee’s interpretation until 1823, when Wirt
issued the opinion discussed earlier. Even within that
branch, Wirt’s view was hotly contested: William Craw
ford, Monroe’s Treasury Secretary, argued “with great
pertinacity” that the Clause authorized the President to
fill only “vacancies which happen during the recess” and
not those “which happen while Congress are in session.” 5
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams 486–487 (C. Adams ed.
1875). Wirt’s analysis nonetheless gained ground in the
——————
filled pre-existing vacancies. Noel Canning disputes that claim, point
ing out that Washington told the Senate the offices in question had
“ ‘fallen vacant during the recess’ ” and arguing that Jefferson may have
removed the incumbent officers during the recess. Brief for Respondent
Noel Canning 44. Suffice it to say that if either Washington or Jeffer
son had adopted the broader reading, against the written advice of
Attorneys General Randolph and Lee, one would expect a good deal
more evidence of that fact.
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Executive Branch over the next four decades; but it did so
slowly and fitfully.
In 1830, Attorney General Berrien disagreed with Wirt
when he wrote that “[i]f the vacancy exist during the
session of the Senate, . . . the President cannot appoint
during the recess.” 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 333, 334. Two years
later, Attorney General Taney endorsed Wirt’s view al
though doing so was, as he acknowledged, unnecessary to
resolve the issue before him: whether the President could,
during the recess, fill a vacancy resulting from the expira
tion of a prior recess appointment at the end of the Sen
ate’s session. 2 Op. Atty Gen. 525, 528 (1832). Addressing
the same issue in 1841, Attorney General Legaré appeared
to believe the dispositive question was whether the office
could be said to have “becom[e] vacant” during the recess.
3 Op. Atty. Gen. 673, 674. And in 1845, Attorney General
Mason thought it “well established” that “[i]f vacancies are
known to exist during the session of the Senate, and nom
inations are not then made, they cannot be filled by execu
tive appointments in the recess.” 4 Op. Atty. Gen. 361,
363.15
The tide seemed to turn—as far as the Executive
Branch was concerned—in the mid-19th century: Attorney
General Cushing in 1855 and Attorney General Bates in
1862 both treated Wirt’s position as settled without sub
jecting it to additional analysis. 7 Op. Atty. Gen. 186, 223;
10 Op. Atty. Gen. 356. Bates, however, entertained “seri
——————
15 A year later Mason, like Taney and Legaré before him, concluded
that when a recess appointment expired at the end of the Senate’s
session, the President could fill the resulting vacancy during the
ensuing recess. In reaching that conclusion, Mason reiterated that the
recess-appointment power “depends on the happening of vacancies
when the Senate is not in session” and said the vacancy at issue was
“within the meaning of” the Clause because the happening of the
vacancy and the termination of the session had “occurred eo instanti.”
4 Op. Atty. Gen. 523, 526–527 (1846).
40 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
ous doubts” about its validity. Ibid. And as one 19th
century court shrewdly observed in rejecting Wirt’s inter
pretation, the frequency with which Attorneys General
during this period were called upon to opine on the ques
tion likely “indicate[s] that no settled administrative
usage had been . . . established.” In re District Attorney of
United States, 7 F. Cas. 731, 738 (No. 3,924) (DC Pa.
1868). The Solicitor General identifies only 10 recess
appointments made between 1823 and 1863 that filled
pre-recess vacancies—about one every four years. App. to
Brief for Petitioner 68a–71a. That is hardly an impressive
number, and most of the appointments were to minor
offices (like Deputy Postmaster for Janesville, Wisconsin,
id., at 70a) unlikely to have gotten the Senate’s attention.
But the Senate did notice when, in 1862, President Lin
coln recess-appointed David Davis to fill a seat on this
Court that had become vacant before the recess, id., at
71a—and it reacted with vigor.
3. 1863 to 1939
Two months after Lincoln’s recess appointment of Davis,
the Senate directed the Judiciary Committee “to inquire
whether the practice . . . of appointing officers to fill va
cancies which have not occurred during the recess of Con
gress, but which existed at the preceding session of Con
gress, is in accordance with the Constitution; and if not,
what remedy shall be applied.” Cong. Globe, 37th Cong.,
3d Sess., 100 (1862). The committee responded with a
report denouncing Wirt’s interpretation of the Clause as
“artificial,” “forced and unnatural,” “unfounded,” and a
“perversion of language.” S. Rep. No. 80, 37th Cong., 3d
Sess., pp. 4–6 (1863). Because the majority all but ignores
this evidence of the Senate’s views, it is worth quoting the
report at some length:
“When must the vacancy . . . accrue or spring into
existence? May it begin during the session of the
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
Senate, or must it have its beginning during the re
cess? We think the language too clear to admit of rea
sonable doubt, and that, upon principles of just con
struction, this period must have its inceptive point
after one session has closed and before another ses
sion has begun. . . .
. . . . .
“We . . . dissent from the construction implied by
the substituted reading, ‘happened to exist,’ for the
word ‘happen’ in the clause. . . . [I]f a vacancy once ex
ists, it has in law happened; for it is in itself an in
stantaneous event. It implies no continuance of the
act that produces it, but takes effect, and is complete
and perfect at an indivisible point of time, like the be
ginning or end of a recess. Once in existence, it has
happened, and the mere continuance of the condition
of things which the occurrence produces, cannot,
without confounding the most obvious distinctions, be
taken or treated as the occurrence itself, as Mr. Wirt
seems to have done. . . .
“Again, we see no propriety in forcing the language
from its popular meaning in order to meet and fulfill
one confessedly great purpose, (the keeping the office
filled,) while there is plainly another purpose of equal
magnitude and importance (fitting qualifications)
attached to and inseparable from the former.” Id.,
at 3–6.
The Committee acknowledged that the broad reading
“ha[d] been, from time to time, sanctioned by Attorneys
General . . . and that the Executive ha[d], from time to
time, practiced upon it,” but it said the Executive’s prac
tice was entitled to no weight because the Constitution’s
text was “too plain to admit of a doubt or to need interpre
tation.” Id., at 7.
On the same day the Committee published its scathing
42 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
report, its chairman, Senator Trumbull, proposed a law
barring the payment of any officer appointed during the
recess to fill a pre-recess vacancy. Cong. Globe, 37th
Cong., 3d Sess., 564. Senator Fessenden spoke in support
of the proposal:
“It ought to be understood distinctly, that when an of
ficer does not come within the rules of law, and is ap
pointed in that way in defiance of the wishes of the
Senate, he shall not be paid. It may not be in our
power to prevent the appointment, but it is in our
power to prevent the payment; and when payment is
prevented, I think that will probably put an end to the
habit of making such appointments.” Id., at 565.
The amendment was adopted by the Senate, ibid., and
after passing the House became the Pay Act, which pro
vided that “no money shall be paid . . . out of the Treasury,
as salary, to any person appointed during the recess of the
Senate, to fill a vacancy . . . which . . . existed while the
Senate was in session.” Act of Feb. 9, 1863, §2, 12 Stat.
646 (codified at Rev. Stat. §1761; subsequently codified as
amended at 5 U. S. C. §56 (1925–1926 ed.)).
The Pay Act would remain in force without significant
modification for nearly eight decades. The Executive
Branch, however, refused to acknowledge that the Act
embodied the Senate’s rejection of the broad reading of
“happen.” Several Attorneys General continued to treat
Wirt’s interpretation as settled without so much as men
tioning the Act. See 12 Op. Atty. Gen. 32 (1866); 12 Op.
Atty. Gen. 449 (1868); 14 Op. Atty. Gen. 562 (1875); 15 Op.
Atty. Gen. 207 (1877). And when, 17 years after its pas
sage, Attorney General Devens deigned to acknowledge
the Act, he preposterously described it as “conced[ing]” the
President’s power to make the appointments for which the
Act barred payment. 16 Op. Atty. Gen. 522, 531 (1880).
The majority is not that bold. Instead, it relegates the
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SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
1863 Judiciary Committee report to a pair of anodyne
sentences in which it says only that the committee “dis
agreed with” Wirt’s interpretation. Ante, at 30. (With like
understatement, one could say that Shakespeare’s Mark
Antony “disagreed with” Caesar’s detractors.) Even more
remarkably, the majority goes on to claim that the Sen
ate’s passage of the Pay Act on the same day the commit
tee issued its report was not a strong enough statement to
impede the constitutionalization-by-adverse-possession of
the power asserted by the Executive. Why not? Because,
the majority says, some Senators may have disagreed with
the report, and because the Senate did not go so far as to
make acceptance of a recess appointment that filled a pre
recess vacancy “a federal crime.” Ante, at 30–31. That
reasoning starkly illustrates the excessive burden the
majority places on the Legislative Branch in contests with
the Executive over the separation of powers. See supra,
at 26.
Despite its minimization by subsequent Attorneys Gen
eral and by today’s majority, there is no reason to doubt
that the Pay Act had a deterrent effect. The Solicitor
General has identified just 40 recess appointments that
filled pre-recess vacancies during the nearly eight decades
between the Act’s passage in 1863 and its amendment in
1940. App. to Brief for Petitioner 71a–79a.16
——————
16 In the early 20th century, some Senators acceded to the majority’s
reading of the Clause, as the majority is eager to point out, ante, at 31.
In 1904, Senator Tillman allowed that “the Senate ha[d] acquiesced” in
the President’s use of the recess-appointment power to fill pre-existing
vacancies, 38 Cong. Rec. 1606, though he also quoted at length from the
1863 Judiciary Committee report and said he did “not see how anybody
can find any argument to controvert the position [the report] takes,” id.,
at 1608. And in 1916, Senators Robinson and Sutherland accepted the
majority’s reading without analysis. 53 Cong. Rec. 4298. The reader
can decide whether those statements by three Senators justify the
assertion that the Senate “abandoned its hostility” to the broad read
ing, ante, at 31.
44 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
4. 1940 to the Present
The majority finds it highly significant that in 1940,
Congress created a few carefully limited exceptions to the
Pay Act’s prohibition on paying recess appointees who
filled pre-recess vacancies. See Act of July 11, 1940, ch.
580, 54 Stat. 751, now codified with nonsubstantive
amendments at 5 U. S. C. §5503. Under the current ver
sion of the Act, “[p]ayment for services may not be made
from the Treasury of the United States to an individual
appointed during a recess of the Senate to fill a vacancy”
that “existed while the Senate was in session” unless
either the vacancy arose, or a different individual’s nomi
nation to fill the vacancy was rejected, “within 30 days
before the end of the session”; or a nomination was pend
ing before the Senate at the end of the session, and the
individual nominated was not himself a recess appointee.
§5503(a)(1)–(3). And if the President fills a pre-recess
vacancy under one of the circumstances specified in the
Act, the law requires that he submit a nomination for that
office to the Senate “not later than 40 days after the be
ginning of the next session.” §5503(b).
The majority says that by allowing salaries to be paid to
recess appointees in these narrow circumstances, “the
1940 Senate (and later Senates) in effect supported” the
majority’s interpretation of the Clause. Ante, at 32. Non
sense. Even as amended, the Act strictly regulates pay
ment to recess appointees who fill pre-recess vacancies,
and it still forbids payment to many officers whose ap
pointments are constitutional under the majority’s inter
pretation. As amici Senators observe, the 1940 amend
ments “reflect at most a desire not to punish public
servants caught in the crossfire” of interbranch conflict.
Brief for Sen. McConnell et al. as Amici Curiae 30. Surely
that inference is more reasonable than the majority’s
supposition that Congress, by permitting some of the
appointees covered by the Act to be paid, meant to signal
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 45
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
that it now believed all of the covered appointments were
valid.
Moreover, given the majority’s interpretation of the
Recess Appointments Clause, it is fairly debatable whether
the current version of the Pay Act is constitutional (and
a fortiori, whether the pre-1940 version was constitutional).
Even as amended, the Act seeks to limit and channel
the President’s exercise of the recess-appointment power
by prohibiting payment to officers whose appointments
are (per the majority) within the President’s sole constitu
tional authority if those appointments do not comply with
conditions imposed by Congress, and by requiring the
President to submit a nominee to the Senate in the first 40
days of the ensuing session. There is a colorable argu
ment—which is routinely made by lawyers in the Execu
tive Branch—that Congress “ ‘cannot use the appropria
tions power to control a Presidential power that is beyond
its direct control.’ ” 33 Op. OLC ___, ___ (2009), online
at http://www.justice.gov/olc/opiniondocs/section7054.pdf
(quoting 20 Op. OLC 253, 267 (1996)). Consistent with
that view, the Office of Legal Counsel has maintained that
Congress could not “condition . . . the funding of an of
ficer’s salary on being allowed to appoint the officer.” 13
Op. OLC 258, 261 (1989).
If that is correct, then the Pay Act’s attempt to control
the President’s exercise of the recess-appointment power
at least raises a substantial constitutional question under
the majority’s reading of the Recess Appointments Clause.
See Rappaport, Original Meaning 1544–1546. The Execu
tive has not challenged the Act’s constitutionality in this
case, and I express no opinion on whether such a challenge
would succeed. I simply point out that it is impossible to
regard the amended Pay Act as evidence of Senatorial
acquiescence in the majority’s reading when that reading
has the potential to invalidate the Act.
Since the Pay Act was amended, individual Senators
46 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
have continued to maintain that recess appointments may
not constitutionally be used to fill pre-recess vacancies.
See, e.g., 130 Cong. Rec. 22780 (statement of seven Sena
tors that a recess appointment to the Federal Reserve
Board in 1984 was unconstitutional because the vacancy
“did not happen during the recess”); Brief for Sen.
McConnell et al. as Amici Curiae 26 (45 Senators taking
that view of the Clause). And there is no evidence that the
watering-down of the Pay Act produced an immediate
flood of recess appointments filling pre-recess vacancies.
The Solicitor General has pointed us to only 40 such ap
pointments between 1940 and the present. App. to Brief
for Petitioner 79a–89a.
The majority, however, finds it significant that in two
small “random sample[s]” of contemporary recess ap
pointments—24 since 1981 and 21 since 2000—the bulk of
the appointments appear to have filled pre-existing vacan
cies. Ante, at 29. Based on that evidence, the majority
thinks it “a fair inference that a large proportion of the
recess appointments in the history of the Nation have
filled pre-existing vacancies.” Ibid. The extrapolation of
that sweeping conclusion from a small set of recent data
does not bear even the slightest scrutiny. The majority
ignores two salient facts: First, from the founding until the
mid-19th century, the President’s authority to make such
appointments was far from settled even within the Execu
tive Branch. Second, from 1863 until 1940, it was illegal
to pay any recess appointee who filled a pre-recess va
cancy, which surely discouraged Presidents from making,
and nominees from accepting, such appointments. Conse
quently, there is no reason to assume that the majority’s
sampling—even if it accurately reflects practices during
the last three decades—is at all typical of practices that
prevailed throughout “the history of the Nation.”17
——————
17 The majority also notes that many of the intra-session recess ap
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 47
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
* * *
In sum: Washington’s and Adams’ Attorneys General
read the Constitution to restrict recess appointments to
vacancies arising during the recess, and there is no evi
dence that any of the first four Presidents consciously
departed from that reading. The contrary reading was
first defended by an executive official in 1823, was vehe
mently rejected by the Senate in 1863, was vigorously
resisted by legislation in place from 1863 until 1940, and
is arguably inconsistent with legislation in place from
1940 to the present. The Solicitor General has identified
only about 100 appointments that have ever been made
under the broader reading, and while it seems likely that
a good deal more have been made in the last few decades,
there is good reason to doubt that many were made before
1940 (since the appointees could not have been compen
sated). I can conceive of no sane constitutional theory
under which this evidence of “historical practice”—which
is actually evidence of a long-simmering inter-branch
conflict—would require us to defer to the views of the
Executive Branch.
IV. Conclusion
What the majority needs to sustain its judgment is an
ambiguous text and a clear historical practice. What it
——————
pointments identified by the Solicitor General were made “within two
weeks of the beginning of the recess,” which, according to the majority,
“strongly suggests that many of the vacancies initially arose prior to
the recess.” Ante, at 29. The inference is unwarranted, since there are
many circumstances other than random chance that could cause a
vacancy to arise early in the recess: For example, the prior officeholder
may have been another recess appointee whose commission expired at
the end of the Senate’s session, or he may have waited until the recess
to resign so that his successor could be compensated without violating
the Pay Act. In any event, the overwhelming majority of the intra
session recess appointments on the Solicitor General’s list occurred
after 1945 and do not shed light on earlier practices.
48 NLRB v. NOEL CANNING
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
has is a clear text and an at-best-ambiguous historical
practice. Even if the Executive could accumulate power
through adverse possession by engaging in a consistent
and unchallenged practice over a long period of time, the
oft-disputed practices at issue here would not meet that
standard. Nor have those practices created any justifiable
expectations that could be disappointed by enforcing the
Constitution’s original meaning. There is thus no ground
for the majority’s deference to the unconstitutional recess
appointment practices of the Executive Branch.
The majority replaces the Constitution’s text with a new
set of judge-made rules to govern recess appointments.
Henceforth, the Senate can avoid triggering the Presi
dent’s now-vast recess-appointment power by the odd
contrivance of never adjourning for more than three days
without holding a pro forma session at which it is under
stood that no business will be conducted. Ante, at 33–34.
How this new regime will work in practice remains to be
seen. Perhaps it will reduce the prevalence of recess
appointments. But perhaps not: Members of the Presi
dent’s party in Congress may be able to prevent the Sen
ate from holding pro forma sessions with the necessary
frequency, and if the House and Senate disagree, the
President may be able to adjourn both “to such Time as he
shall think proper.” U. S. Const., Art. II, §3. In any event,
the limitation upon the President’s appointment power is
there not for the benefit of the Senate, but for the protec
tion of the people; it should not be dependent on Senate
action for its existence.
The real tragedy of today’s decision is not simply the
abolition of the Constitution’s limits on the recess
appointment power and the substitution of a novel frame
work invented by this Court. It is the damage done to our
separation-of-powers jurisprudence more generally. It is
not every day that we encounter a proper case or contro
versy requiring interpretation of the Constitution’s struc
Cite as: 573 U. S. ____ (2014) 49
SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment
tural provisions. Most of the time, the interpretation of
those provisions is left to the political branches—which, in
deciding how much respect to afford the constitutional
text, often take their cues from this Court. We should
therefore take every opportunity to affirm the primacy of
the Constitution’s enduring principles over the politics of
the moment. Our failure to do so today will resonate well
beyond the particular dispute at hand. Sad, but true: The
Court’s embrace of the adverse-possession theory of execu
tive power (a characterization the majority resists but
does not refute) will be cited in diverse contexts, including
those presently unimagined, and will have the effect of
aggrandizing the Presidency beyond its constitutional
bounds and undermining respect for the separation of
powers.
I concur in the judgment only.