Opinion About Recess Appointments is “Eyes Only” — And That Specifically Doesn’t Include Your Eyes

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Marcy Wheeler alerts us to a document posted today by Charlie Savage of the New York Times about the authority of the president to make recess appointments even when the Senate is conducting brief pro forma sessions in order to pretend that it’s not in recess. The Office of Legal Counsel weighed in on this several months ago, concluding that Obama could indeed ignore these sham sessions, but Savage submitted a FOIA request for other legal opinions on this issue. This is not an issue of national security, just a legal skirmish between branches of government, but when OLC finally produced a 2004 opinion written by Jack Goldsmith, here’s what it looked like:

“Next up,” says Marcy, “the Administration is going to start redacting Civics textbooks, because the workings of government are so terribly sensitive.”

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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