Abuse of Power. Frankly, I’m surprised – and pleased – by the ruling of the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit who basically said to President iWonTwice that he did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board because the Senate was officially in session — and not in recess — at the time. His actions violated the Constitution (shocking!) when he bypassed the Senate and their authority to fill vacancies on this labor relations panel.

Here’s the ruling for you legal geeks to review and here are the cliff notes for the rest of us:

“In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama’s controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess.

The three-judge panel’s ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments Mr. Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and the board no longer has a quorum to operate.

But the ruling has even broader constitutional significance, with the judges arguing that the president’s recess appointment powers don’t apply to “intrasession” appointments — those made when Congress has left town for a few days or weeks.

The judges signaled the power only applies after Congress has adjourned sine die, which is a legislative term of art that signals the end to a long work period. In modern times, it means the president could only use his powers when Congress quits business at the end of a year.”

No, Obama. In the name of governing, you can’t violate the law and abuse your power.

This is a really embarrassing setback for President iWonTwice especially since he prefers to regard the Constitution as merely an inconvenient obstacle to his rule by fiat. The left, predictably, is fairly frothing over it. Some are suggesting that the Supremes will likely take this case, and as Ann Althouse says, if it is not reversed, will invalidate all the decisions the NLRB has made going back more than a year and that going forward, there is no quorum for it to decide any cases. Nice.

This is one of the reasons our framers wrote The Constitution the way they did. If given any opportunity, corrupt leaders like Obama would try to completely ignore the limits of their power. Thank god for checks and balances.