Opinion ID: 815978
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Meaning of “Happen”

Text: Although our holding on the first constitutional argument of the petitioner is sufficient to compel a decision vacating the Board’s order, as we suggested above, we also agree that the petitioner is correct in its understanding of the meaning of the word “happen” in the Recess Appointments Clause. The Clause permits only the filling up of “Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 3. Our decision on this issue depends on the meaning of the constitutional language “that may happen during the Recess.” The company contends that “happen” means “arise” or “begin” or “come into being.” The Board, on the other hand, contends that the President may fill up any vacancies that “happen to exist” during “the Recess.” It is our firm conviction that the appointments did not occur during “the Recess.” We proceed now to determine whether the appointments are also invalid as the vacancies did not “happen” during “the Recess.” In determining the meaning of “happen” in the Recess Appointments Clause, we begin our analysis as we did in the first issue by looking to the natural meaning of the text as it 31 would have been understood at the time of the ratification of the Constitution. See Heller, 128 S. Ct. at 2788. Upon a simple reading of the language itself, we conclude that the word “happen” could not logically have encompassed any vacancies that happened to exist during “the Recess.” If the language were to be construed as the Board advocates, the operative phrase “that may happen” would be wholly unnecessary. Under the Board’s interpretation, the vacancy need merely exist during “the Recess” to trigger the President’s recess appointment power. The Board’s interpretation would apply with equal force, however, irrespective of the phrase “that may happen.” Its interpretation therefore deprives that phrase of any force. By effectively reading the phrase out of the Clause, the Board’s interpretation once again runs afoul of the principle that every phrase of the Constitution must be given effect. See Marbury, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) at 174 (“It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect . . . .”). For our logical analysis of the language with respect to the meaning of “happen” to be controlling, we must establish that it is consistent with the understanding of the word contemporaneous with the ratification. Dictionaries at the time of the Constitution defined “happen” as “[t]o fall out; to chance; to come to pass.” 1 Johnson, supra, at 965; see also Evans, 387 F.3d at 1230 & n.4 (Barkett, J., dissenting) (surveying a variety of eighteenth-century dictionaries and concluding that they all defined “happen” similarly). A vacancy happens, or “come[s] to pass,” only when it first arises, demonstrating that the Recess Appointments Clause requires that the relevant vacancy arise during the recess. The term “happen” connotes an event taking place — an action — and it would be plainly incorrect to say that an event happened during some period of time when in fact it happened before that time. 32 In addition to the logic of the language, there is ample other support for this conclusion. First, we repair again to examination of the structure of the Constitution. If we accept the Board’s construction, we eviscerate the primary mode of appointments set forth in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2. It would have made little sense to make the primary method of appointment the cumbersome advice and consent procedure contemplated by that Clause if the secondary method would permit the President to fill up all vacancies regardless of when the vacancy arose. A President at odds with the Senate over nominations would never have to submit his nominees for confirmation. He could simply wait for a “recess” (however defined) and then fill up all vacancies. We further note that the “arise” interpretation is consistent with other usages of “happen” in the Constitution. Article I, Section 3, Clause 2, the Senate Vacancies Clause, provides for the filling of vacancies in Senate seats. Though now amended, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, that section stated: “if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.” U.S. Const. art. I, § 3, cl. 2. That Clause makes sense if “happen . . . during the Recess” refers to arising or coming into being during “the Recess.” If it merely means that the vacancy happens to exist at the time of a recess, it becomes implausible. Our construction of “happen” as meaning “arise” in the Recess Appointments Clause is consistent with the use of the same wording in the Senate Vacancies Clause. It is well established that “inconsistency [within the Constitution] is to be implied only where the context clearly requires it.” Nat’l Mut. Ins. Co. v. Tidewater Transfer Co., 337 U.S. 582, 587 (1949). 33 Our understanding of the plain meaning of the Recess Appointments Clause as requiring that a qualifying vacancy must have come to pass or arisen “during the Recess” is consistent with the apparent meaning of the Senate Vacancies Clause. The interpretation proffered by the Board is not. As with the first issue, we also find that evidence of the earliest understanding of the Clause is inconsistent with the Board’s position. It appears that the first President, who took office shortly after the ratification, understood the recess appointments power to extend only to vacancies that arose during senatorial recess. More specifically, President Washington followed a practice that strongly suggests that he understood “happen” to mean “arise.” If not enough time remained in the session to ask a person to serve in an office, President Washington would nominate a person without the nominee’s consent, and the Senate would confirm the individual before recessing. See Rappaport, supra, at 1522. Then, if the person declined to serve during the recess, thereby creating a new vacancy during the recess, President Washington would fill the position using his recess appointment power. Id. If President Washington and the early Senate had understood the word “happen” to mean “happen to exist,” this convoluted process would have been unnecessary. In 1792, Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney General, addressed the issue of an office that had become vacant during the session when the Secretary of State sought his view. Edmund Randolph, Opinion on Recess Appointments (July 7, 1792), in 24 The Papers of Thomas Jefferson 165, 165–67 (John Catanzariti et al. eds., 1990) (“Randolph Opinion”). Addressing the vacancy, concluding that it did not “happen” during the recess, and thereby rejecting the “exist” interpretation, Randolph wrote: 34 But is it a vacancy which has happened during the recess of the Senate? It is now the same and no other vacancy, than that, which existed on the 2nd. of April 1792. It commenced therefore on that day or may be said to have happened on that day. Id. at 166. Alexander Hamilton, similarly, wrote that “[i]t is clear, that independent of the authority of a special law, the President cannot fill a vacancy which happens during a session of the Senate.” Letter from Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry (May 3, 1799), in 23 The Papers of Alexander Hamilton 94, 94 (Harold C. Syrett ed., 1976); see also The Federalist No. 67, supra, at 408 (explaining the purpose of the Clause by stating that “vacancies might happen in their recess” (emphasis in original)). In March 1814, Senator Christopher Gore argued that the Clause’s scope is limited to “vacanc[ies] that may happen during the recess of the Senate”: If the vacancy happens at another time, it is not the case described by the Constitution; for that specifies the precise space of time wherein the vacancy must happen, and the times which define this period bring it emphatically within the ancient and well-established maxim: “Expressio unius est exclusio alterius.” 26 Annals of Cong. 653 (1814); see United States v. Wells Fargo Bank, 485 U.S. 351, 357 (1988) (defining the interpretive canon of “expressio unius est exclusio alterius” as “the expression of one is the exclusion of others” (italics omitted)). Additional support for the “arise” interpretation comes from early interpreters who understood that the Clause only applied to vacancies where the office had previously been occupied, as 35 opposed to vacancies that existed because the office had been newly created. Justice Joseph Story explained that “[t]he word ‘happen’ had relation to some casualty,” a statement consistent with the arise interpretation. 3 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution § 1553 (1833) (“Story’s Commentaries”), reprinted in 4 The Founders’ Constitution 122 (Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner eds., 1987). We recognize that some circuits have adopted the “exist” interpretation. See Evans, 387 F.3d at 1226–27; United States v. Woodley, 751 F.2d 1008, 1012–13 (9th Cir. 1985); United States v. Allocco, 305 F.2d 704, 709–15 (2d Cir. 1962). Those courts, however, did not focus their analyses on the original public meaning of the word “happen.” In arguing that happen could mean “exist,” the Evans majority used a modern dictionary to define “happen” as “befall,” and then used the same modern dictionary to define “befall” as “happen to be.” See 387 F.3d at 1226 (quoting 6 Oxford English Dictionary 1096 (2d ed. 1989); 2 id. at 62). As the Evans dissent argued, “[t]his is at best a strained effort to avoid the available dictionary evidence.” Id. at 1230 n.4 (Barkett, J., dissenting). A modern cross-reference is not a contemporary definition. The Board has offered no dictionaries from the time of the ratification that define “happen” consistently with the proffered definition of “happen to exist.” The Evans majority also relied on a handful of recess appointments supposedly made by Presidents Washington and Jefferson to offices that became vacant prior to the recess. Id. at 1226 (majority opinion). Subsequent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that these appointments were “in fact examples of the practice of appointing an individual without his consent and then, if he turns down the appointment during the recess, making a recess appointment at that time.” Rappaport, supra, at 1522 n.97. Again, as with the appointments by 36 President Washington referenced above, the use of this convoluted method of appointment demonstrates that early interpreters read “happen” as “arise.” The Evans, Woodley, and Allocco courts all relied on supposed congressional acquiescence in the practice of making recess appointments to offices that were vacant prior to the recess because 5 U.S.C. § 5503 permits payment to such appointees in some circumstances. See Evans, 387 F.3d at 1226–27; Woodley, 751 F.2d at 1013; Allocco, 305 F.2d at 715 (referring to § 5503’s predecessor statute); see also 5 U.S.C. § 5503 (denying recess appointees payment “if the vacancy [they filled] existed while the Senate was in session,” subject to certain exceptions). Section 5503 was passed in 1966. Act of Sept. 6, 1966, Pub. L. No. 89-554, 80 Stat. 378, 475. Its similar predecessor statute was passed in 1940. Act of July 11, 1940, ch. 580, 54 Stat. 751. The enactment of statutes in 1940 and 1966 sheds no light on the original understanding of the Constitution. This is particularly true as prior statutes refused payments of salaries to all recess appointees whose vacancies arose during the session. See Act of Feb. 9, 1863, ch. 25, § 2, 12 Stat. 642, 646 (stating that no “money [shall] be paid out of the Treasury, as salary, to any person appointed during the recess of the Senate, to fill a vacancy in any existing office, which vacancy existed while the Senate was in session and is by law required to be filled by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, until such appointee shall have been confirmed by the Senate”); 5 U.S.C. § 56 (1934). We doubt that our sister circuits are correct in construing this legislation as acquiescent. The Framers placed the power of the purse in the Congress in large part because the British experience taught that the appropriations power was a tool with which the legislature could resist “the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of government.” The 37 Federalist No. 58, supra, at 357. The 1863 Act constitutes precisely that: resistance to executive aggrandizement. In any event, if the Constitution does not empower the President to make the appointments, “[n]either Congress nor the Executive can agree to waive . . . structural protection[s]” in the Appointments Clause. Freytag, 501 U.S. at 880; cf. Chadha, 462 U.S. at 942 n.13 (“The assent of the Executive to a bill which contains a provision contrary to the Constitution does not shield it from judicial review.”). As we recalled in our analysis of the first issue, “[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule.” Marbury, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) at 177. The Senate’s desires do not determine the Constitution’s meaning. The Constitution’s separation of powers features, of which the Appointments Clause is one, do not simply protect one branch from another. See Freytag, 501 U.S. at 878. These structural provisions serve to protect the people, for it is ultimately the people’s rights that suffer when one branch encroaches on another. As Madison explained in Federalist No. 51, the division of power between the branches forms part of the “security [that] arises to the rights of the people.” The Federalist No. 51, supra, at 320. Or as the Supreme Court held in Freytag, “The structural interests protected by the Appointments Clause are not those of any one branch of Government but of the entire Republic.” 501 U.S. at 880. In short, nothing in 5 U.S.C. § 5503 changes our view that the original meaning of “happen” is “arise.” Our sister circuits and the Board contend that the “arise” interpretation fosters inefficiencies and leaves open the possibility of just what is occurring here — that is, a Board that cannot act for want for a quorum. The Board also suggests more dire consequences, arguing that failure to accept the “exist” 38 interpretation will leave the President unable to fulfill his chief constitutional obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” U.S. Const. art. II, § 3, and even suggests that the interpretation we adopt today could pose national security risks. See Noel Canning v. NLRB, No. 12-1115, Oral Argument Tr. at 52 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 5, 2012). But if Congress wished to alleviate such problems, it could certainly create Board members whose service extended until the qualification of a successor, or provide for action by less than the current quorum, or deal with any inefficiencies in some other fashion. And our suggestion that Congress can address this issue is no mere hypothesis. The two branches have repeatedly, and thoroughly, addressed the problems of vacancies in the executive branch. Congress has provided for the temporary filling of a vacancy in a particular executive office by an “acting” officer authorized to perform all of the duties and exercise all of the powers of that office, see, e.g., 28 U.S.C. § 508 (Attorney General); 29 U.S.C. § 552 (Secretary of Labor), including key national security positions. See, e.g., 10 U.S.C. § 132(b) (Secretary of Defense); id. § 154(d), (e) (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff); 50 U.S.C. § 403-3a(a) (Director of National Intelligence); id. § 403-4c(b)(2) (Director of Central Intelligence Agency); see also S. Rep. No. 105-250, at 16–17 (1998) (listing other provisions). Moreover, Congress statutorily addressed the filling of vacancies in the executive branch not otherwise provided for. See 5 U.S.C. §§ 3345–3349d. Congress has also addressed the problem of vacancies on various multimember agencies, providing that members may continue to serve for some period past the expiration of their commissions until successors are nominated and confirmed. See, e.g., 7 U.S.C. § 2(a)(2)(A) (Commodities Futures Trading Commission); 15 U.S.C. § 78d(a) (Securities and Exchange Commission); 42 U.S.C. § 7171(b)(1) (Federal Energy 39 Regulatory Commission); 47 U.S.C. § 154(c) (Federal Communications Commission). And we have cited only a fraction of the multimember boards for which Congress has provided such potential extensions. Admittedly, Congress has chosen not to provide for acting NLRB members. See 5 U.S.C. § 3349c(1)(A). But that choice cannot support the Board’s interpretation of the Clause. We cannot accept an interpretation of the Constitution completely divorced from its original meaning in order to resolve exigencies created by — and equally remediable by — the executive and legislative branches. And as the Supreme Court expressly noted in New Process Steel, in the context of the Board, “[i]f Congress wishes to allow the Board to decide cases with only two members, it can easily do so.” 130 S. Ct. at 2645. In any event, if some administrative inefficiency results from our construction of the original meaning of the Constitution, that does not empower us to change what the Constitution commands. As the Supreme Court observed in INS v. Chadha, “the fact that a given law or procedure is efficient, convenient, and useful in facilitating functions of government, standing alone, will not save it if it is contrary to the Constitution.” 462 U.S. at 944. It bears emphasis that “[c]onvenience and efficiency are not the primary objectives — or the hallmarks — of democratic government.” Id. The power of a written constitution lies in its words. It is those words that were adopted by the people. When those words speak clearly, it is not up to us to depart from their meaning in favor of our own concept of efficiency, convenience, or facilitation of the functions of government. In light of the extensive evidence that the original public meaning of “happen” was “arise,” we hold that the President may only make recess appointments to fill vacancies that arise during the recess. 40 Applying this rule to the case before us, we further hold that the relevant vacancies did not arise during the intersession recess of the Senate. The three Board seats that the President attempted to fill on January 4, 2012, had become vacant on August 27, 2010, August 27, 2011, and January 3, 2012, respectively. See Part III, supra (showing the dates for Chairman Liebman and Members Schaumber and Becker’s departures). On August 27, 2010, the Senate was in the midst of an intrasession recess, so the vacancy that arose on that date did not arise during “the Recess” for purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause. See Congressional Directory for the 112th Congress 538 (2011). Similarly, the Senate was in an intrasession recess on August 27, 2011, so the vacancy that arose on that date also did not qualify for a recess appointment. See id. The seat formerly occupied by Member Becker became vacant at the “End” of the Senate’s session on January 3, 2012 — it did not “happen during the Recess of the Senate.” First, this vacancy could not have arisen during an intersession recess because the Senate did not take an intersession recess between the first and second sessions of the 112th Congress. It has long been the practice of the Senate, dating back to the First Congress, to conclude its sessions and enter “the Recess” with an adjournment sine die.1 The Senate has followed 1 See Congressional Directory for the 112th Congress, supra, at 522–38 (listing all of the Senate’s intersession recesses prior to 2012); see, e.g., 156 Cong. Rec. S11,070 (daily ed. Dec. 22, 2010) (concluding Second Session of 111th Congress with adjournment sine die); 147 Cong. Rec. 27,953 (2001) (concluding First Session of 107th Congress with adjournment sine die); 139 Cong. Rec. 32,433 (1993) (concluding First Session of 103d Congress with adjournment sine die); 128 Cong. Rec. 33,629 (1982) (concluding Second Session of the 41 this practice even for relatively brief intersession recesses.2 97th Congress with adjournment sine die); 125 Cong. Rec. 37,605 (1979) (concluding First Session of 96th Congress with adjournment sine die); 117 Cong. Rec. 47,658 (1971) (concluding First Session of the 92d Congress with adjournment sine die); 105 Cong. Rec. 19,688 (1959) (concluding First Session of 86th Congress with adjournment sine die); 91 Cong. Rec. 12,525 (1945) (concluding First Session of 79th Congress with adjournment sine die); 65 Cong. Rec. 11,202 (1924) (concluding First Session of 68th Congress with adjournment sine die); 45 Cong. Rec. 9,080 (1910) (concluding Second Session of 61st Congress with adjournment sine die); 23 Cong. Rec. 7,081 (1892) (concluding First Session of 52d Congress with adjournment sine die); Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess. 4,504 (1872) (concluding Second Session of 42d Congress with adjournment sine die); Cong. Globe, 23d Cong., 1st Sess. 480 (1834) (concluding First Session of 23d Congress with adjournment sine die); 29 Annals of Cong. 372 (1816) (concluding First Session of 14th Congress with adjournment sine die); 3 Annals of Cong. 668 (1793) (concluding Second Session of 2d Congress with adjournment sine die); 2 Annals of Cong. 1786 (1791) (concluding Third Session of 1st Congress with adjournment sine die). 2 See, e.g., 154 Cong. Rec. 24,808 (2009) (concluding Second Session of 110th Congress and entering three-day intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 141 Cong. Rec. 38,608 (1996) (concluding First Session of 104th Congress and entering momentary intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 137 Cong. Rec. 36,364 (1992) (concluding First Session of 102d Congress with adjournment sine die at the same time that the Second Session began); 109 Cong. Rec. 25,674 (1963) (concluding First Session of 88th Congress and entering eight-day intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 96 Cong. Rec. 17,121 (1951) (concluding Second Session of 81st Congress and entering one-day intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 94 Cong. Rec. 10,264 (1948) (concluding Second Session of 80th Congress and entering three-day intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 87 Cong. Rec. 10,143 (1942) (concluding First Session of 77th Congress and entering three-day intersession recess with adjournment sine die); 76 Cong. Rec. 5,656 (1933) (concluding Second Session of 72d Congress and entering one-day intersession 42 Indeed, various acts of Congress refer to the adjournment sine die as the conclusion of the session. See, e.g., 2 U.S.C. § 682(5) (for purpose of congressional budget consideration, “continuity of a session of the Congress shall be considered as broken only by an adjournment of the Congress sine die”); 5 U.S.C. § 906(b)(1) (for purpose of agency reorganization plans, “continuity of session is broken only by an adjournment of Congress sine die”). We find a recent example of this longstanding practice, with dates nearly identical to those in this case, to be particularly instructive. On December 31, 2007, the Senate met in pro forma session and concluded the First Session of the 110th Congress, and entered “the Recess,” with an adjournment sine die. See Congressional Directory for the 112th Congress, supra, at 537 (confirming that the First Session of the 110th Congress ended on December 31, 2007); 153 Cong. Rec. 36,508 (2007) (adjourning Senate sine die). It then convened the Second Session of the 110th Congress with a pro forma session on January 3, 2008. See Congressional Directory for the 112th Congress, supra, at 537 (confirming that the Second Session of the 110th Congress began on January 3, 2008); 154 Cong. Rec. 2 (2008) (convening Second Session). Because, in this case, the Senate declined to adjourn sine die on December 30, 2011, it did not enter an intersession recess, and the First Session of the 112th Congress expired simultaneously with the beginning of the Second Session. See, e.g., 86 Cong. Rec. 14,059 (1941) (noting that, in the absence of an adjournment sine die on January 3, 1941, “[t]he third session of the Seventy-sixth Congress expired automatically, under constitutional limitation, when the hour of 12 o’clock arrived”). recess with adjournment sine die). 43 Although the December 17, 2011, scheduling order specifically provided that the Second Session of the 112th Congress would convene on January 3, 2012, see 157 Cong. Rec. S8,783 (daily ed. Dec. 17, 2011), it did not specify when the First Session would conclude. And, at the last pro forma session before the January 3, 2012, session, the Senate adjourned to a date certain: January 3, 2012. See 157 Cong. Rec. S8,793 (daily ed. Dec. 30, 2011). Because the Senate did not adjourn sine die, it did not enter “the Recess” between the First and Second Sessions of the 112th Congress. Becker’s appointment therefore expired at the end of the First Session on January 3, 2012, and the vacancy in that seat could not have “happen[ed]” during “the Recess” of the Senate. Second, in any event, the Clause states that a recess appointment expires “at the End of [the Senate’s] next Session,” U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 3, not “at the beginning of the Senate’s next Recess.” Likewise, the structure of Article II, Section 2 supports this reading, for “it makes little sense to allow a second consecutive recess appointment for the same position, because the President and the Senate would have had an entire Senate session during the first recess appointment to nominate and confirm a permanent appointee.” Rappaport, supra, at 1509. The January 3, 2012, vacancy thus did not arise during the recess, depriving the President of power to make an appointment under the Recess Appointments Clause. Because none of the three appointments were valid, the Board lacked a quorum and its decision must be vacated. See 29 U.S.C. § 153(b); New Process Steel, 130 S. Ct. at 2644–45. Even if the “End” of the session were “during the Recess,” meaning that the January 3, 2012, vacancy arose during some imaginary recess, we hold that the appointment to that seat is invalid because the President must make the recess appointment during the same intersession recess when the 44 vacancy for that office arose. The Clause provides that a recess appointee’s commission expires at “the End of [the Senate’s] next Session,” which the Framers understood as “the end of the ensuing session.” The Federalist No. 67, supra, at 408 (emphasis added). Consistent with the structure of the Appointments Clause and the Recess Appointments Clause exception to it, the filling up of a vacancy that happens during a recess must be done during the same recess in which the vacancy arose. There is no reason the Framers would have permitted the President to wait until some future intersession recess to make a recess appointment, for the Senate would have been sitting in session during the intervening period and available to consider nominations. The earliest authoritative commentary on the Constitution explains that the purpose of the Recess Appointments Clause was to give the President authorization “to make temporary appointments during the recess, which should expire, when the senate should have had an opportunity to act on the subject.” Story’s Commentaries, supra, § 1551, reprinted in 4 The Founders’ Constitution, supra, at 122; see also Evans, 387 F.3d at 1233 (Barkett, J., dissenting). As with the first issue, we hold that the petitioner’s understanding of the constitutional provision is correct, and the Board’s is wrong. The Board had no quorum, and its order is void.