On Wednesday, President Obama announced a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Hours later, the President announced recess appointments to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) members. What makes these appointments noteworthy is that they deliberately disregarded the Senate’s advise-and-consent responsibilities outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

It is astonishing that our president has chosen to exercise an overreach of executive power by blatantly ignoring the legislative branch. As I expressed on-air with Bill Bennett yesterday and Bob Davis and Tom Emmer today – these are the actions of an imperial presidency on steroids.

At a press conference earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney maintained that the appointments were legal, and that the Senate was not in session, stating, “the Constitution trumps gimmicks.” However, Todd Gaziano, Director of Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, noted, “The House of Representatives did not consent to a Senate recess of more than three days at the end of last year, and so the Senate, consistent with the requirements of the Constitution, is having pro forma sessions every few days. In short, Congress is still in session, and no one in Congress is saying (or can reasonably say) otherwise.”

Due to President Obama’s constitutionally questionable appointments, a cloud of uncertainty has arisen regarding the legality of his actions. Moreover, an article by David Rivkin and Lee Casey points out that President Obama may have not only inadvertently undermined his appointees to the CFPB and the NLRB, but also future decisions by these agencies.