GOP rep threatens to sue Obama over recess appointments

Ohio U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, recently threatened to file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama over his recent controversial recess appointments.

Speaking on Fox Business with Neil Cavuto, Johnson said that his consideration of a lawsuit would be to "hold (Obama) in compliance and accountable to the Constitution."

Johnson said that he intends to talk with constitutional lawyers to investigate whether Obama exceeded his authority when he recently made four recess appointments while the U.S. Senate was holding pro forma meetings (meaning the Senate is technically in session despite the fact that nobody's actually meeting).

Among the appointments Obama made was former Ohio Treasurer and Attorney General Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans had been deeply opposed to the appointment, not so much because they disapprove of Cordray but because they feel the new agency lacks congressional oversight.

"This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department," House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, said in a prepared statement. "The precedent that would be set by this cavalier action would have a devastating effect on the checks and balances that are enshrined in our Constitution."

Republicans had attempted to block the recess appointments through the "pro forma" sessions method over the holiday season. Senate Democrats had used a similar tactic in preventing former President George W. Bush from making recess appointments, which can last up to two years.

Rep. Johnson, whose Sixth District includes most of Athens County, questioned the constitutionality of Obama's move.

"The Congress of the United States is a co-equal branch of government under the constitution, co-equal to the president," he said. "As such, Congress has the authority to determine when it's in session and what determines when it's in session."

Johnson avoided using the word "impeachment" during the interview with Cavuto, but Cavuto pushed him on the subject.

"If that's the legal term for it, then that's what it's called," Johnson responded when Cavuto told him that holding the president accountable for a constitutional violation would be "bringing impeachable offenses."

Johnson said this isn't a debate about whether the country needs the new bureau. "It's a debate about how this president is continuing to overreach," he said.

The Dodd-Frank legislation that put the bureau in place "made it clear that it must have Senate approval," Johnson said. "The President cannot just arbitrarily change the rules."

Johnson said that the U.S. Constitution is clear.

"It's my opinion that the president may have very well violated (the Constitution)," he said before revealing his intentions to consult with attorneys on the matter. "If they determine that this is a violation of the Constitution, I'm going to ask them to represent me as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against President Barack Obama to hold him in compliance and accountable with the constitution."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department recently released a 23-page legal opinion summarizing the advice it gave to the White House prior to the Jan. 4 appointments. The department advised that the appointments were legal under the circumstances.

Presidential recess appointments are nothing new, although Obama set a new precedent by making them during a "pro forma" session.

According to reports from the Congressional Research Service, during their time in office President Ronald Reagan made 240 recess appointments, President George H. W. Bush made 77 recess appointments, President Bill Clinton made 140, and George W. Bush made 171. In Obama's first term he has made 28 so far.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded to the situation by criticizing congressional Republicans for taking so much time off in January.

"After spending his first year voting to end Medicare while protecting tax breaks for big oil and billionaires, Congressman Johnson and Congressional Republicans started off this year by taking an extended vacation," DCCC spokesperson Haley Morris said. "Ohio families can't afford Congressman Johnson's failed, out-of-touch agenda that does nothing to create jobs."

Johnson's office repeatedly failed to provide comment on the issue over the past week.

Under newly drawn districts that will go into effect next year, the 6^th District will include only the two southeastern most townships in the county. Most of Athens County will be in the newly drawn 15^th Congressional District, which stretches all the way to Columbus and is considered "safely" Republican.

Athens City Law Director Pat Lang, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, in the November election.