In Canning v. NLRB, here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that President Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board because the Senate was officially in session — and not in recess — at the time. The decision could invalidate many decisions made by the NLRB. The Court of Appeals held that the president could only fill vacancies with the recess appointment procedure if the openings arise when the Senate is in an official recess, which it defined as the break between sessions of Congress. Applicable to this weblog, the Canning decision also draws into question the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been challenged in a separate lawsuit.