Gene Healy on Obama's Illegal Appointment of Richard Cordray

Every day that the Senate refused to confirm Richard Cordray, Obama's nominee for the new "consumer watchdog" agency created by the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, was another "when millions of Americans were left unprotected." So Obama, in a flagrantly unconstitutional gambit, invoked the Recess Appointments Clause to install Cordray, Senate confirmation be damned. Obama isn't the first president to invoke that exception where it doesn't apply, writes Gene Healy, but he is the first to do it when the Senate is actually in session.