Supreme Court Decision

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I welcome the Supreme Court's decision in the Noel Canning case. It represents a clear rebuke to the President's brazen power grab--a power grab I was proud to lead the effort against. Today's decision was clear, and it was a unanimous--unanimous--rebuke of the President of the United States.

As my Republican colleagues and I have said all along, President Obama's so-called recess appointments to the NLRB in 2012 were a wholly unprecedented act of lawlessness. The President defied the Senate's determination that it was meeting regularly, and the Supreme Court unanimously--unanimously--agreed with us.

Today's ruling is a victory for the Senate, for the American people, and for our Constitution.

The Court reaffirmed the Senate's clear and constitutional authority to prescribe its own rules, including the right to determine for itself when it is in session. And the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the President's completely unprecedented assertion of a unilateral appointment power--a power the Framers deliberately withheld from his office.

Our counsel, Miguel Estrada, did an outstanding job defending the Senate and its uniquely important place in our constitutional system. By contrast, our Democratic colleagues shirked their institutional duty to defend the Senate. They failed, yet again, to stand up to the President. Although they failed to defend the Senate when it mattered most, they, their successors, and their constituents will benefit from today's ruling.

The principle at stake in this case should extend well beyond narrow partisanship. It should be about more than just one President or one political party.

In closing, the administration's tendency to abide only by the laws it likes represents a disturbing and dangerous threat to the rule of law. That is true whether we are talking about recess appointments or ObamaCare.

So I hope the Obama administration will take away the appropriate lessons because the Court's decision today is a clear rebuke of this behavior.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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