A unanimous decision handed down Friday by the District ofColumbia Circuit Appeals Court invalidates President Obama's recessappointments to the National Labor Relations Board, and put therecess appointment of CFPB Director Richard Cordray into jeopardy.

The three-judge panel said the appointments, made while theSenate was in a pro forma session in early January 2012, wereunconstitutional. The Obama Administration is expected to file anappeal to the Supreme Court.

“An interpretation of 'the recess' that permits the president todecide when the Senate is in recess would demolish the checks andbalances inherent in the advice-and-consent requirement, giving thepresident free rein to appoint his desired nominees at any time hepleases, whether that time be a weekend, lunch, or even when theSenate is in session and he is merely displeased with its inaction.This cannot be the law,” the judges wrote in the decision.