SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday [3-21-17] made it more difficult for the president to quickly fill vacant top government jobs in a case centered on the appointment powers of the executive.
In a 6-to-2 ruling, the court limited the president’s ability to put certain high-level officials in positions in an acting capacity while awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
The court was reviewing the scope of a federal law intended to prevent presidents from temporarily slipping someone into a top position to circumvent the Senate’s process for reviewing an appointment to the permanent post.
The majority rejected the government’s view that the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 applied only to people serving in the role of ‘first assistant’ and not to other officials. The statute, the court said, prohibits anyone who has been nominated to lead a federal agency from performing the job in an acting capacity, according to the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.”
-Ann E. Marimow, “Supreme Court limits president’s appointment powers,” The Washington Post online, March 21, 2017