Under the Constitution (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2), the President and the Senate share the power to make appointments to high-level policy-making positions in federal departments, agencies, boards, and commissions. Generally, the President nominates individuals to these positions, and the Senate must confirm them before he can appoint them to office. The Constitution also provides an exception to this process. When the Senate is in recess, the President may make a temporary appointment, called a recess appointment, to any such position without Senate approval (Article II, Section 2, Clause 3). This book provides a legal overview of the practice and responses to frequently asked questions.

The Constitution allows the president to "fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commission which shall expire at the End of their next Session." This book addresses how presidents have used recess appointments over time and whether the independence of judicial recess appointees is compromised. The authors examine every judicial recess appointment from 1789 to 2005 and conclude that the recess appointment clause, as it pertains to the judiciary, is no longer necessary or desirable. They argue that these appointments can upset the separation of powers envisioned by the framers, shifting power from one branch of government to another. The strategic use of such appointments by strong presidents to shift judicial ideology, combined with the lack of independence exhibited by judicial recess appointments, results in recess power that threatens constitutional features of the judicial branch. Book jacket.

On December 27, 2000, President Bill Clinton used his recess appointment power to place Roger L. Gregory on the Fourth Circuit. The Constitution provides that such appointments "shall expire at the End of their next Session" (in this case, at the end of 2001). This was the first time since President Carter that the recess appointment procedure had been used to select someone to an Article III judgeship, which provides for life tenure and no diminution of salary. The appointment of Gregory raised questions about the meaning of the Recess Clause, Senate prerogatives, and the opportunity of a litigant in federal court to have a case handled by a judge with full independence. On July 20, the Senate confirmed Judge Gregory to a life term.