WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today called on the members of the National Labor Relations Board appointed by President Obama in January during a pro-forma session of the United States Senate to resign immediately after a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled those appointments unconstitutional.
Alexander said: “The court has found that the president violated the Constitution when he made these appointments. These individuals should resign from the board immediately, because no decision in which they participate can be valid. This judgment is proof that the administration defied the Constitution’s separation of powers and its concept of checks and balances, which are the guard against an imperial presidency.”
In September of last year, Alexander joined 41 Republican senators in filing an amicus brief in the Noel Canning case against the President’s pro-forma session appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
Click here for the text of a floor speech delivered in February, when Alexander challenged the president’s appointments, saying: “The President has shown disregard for possibly the best-known and most important role of the Senate – its power of advice and consent of executive and judicial nominations as outlined in Article 2, Section 2, of the Constitution.”
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