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A few new pieces of information for me in here, I didn't know so many non-SCOTUS judge appointments were being blocked, didn't know 'judicial emergency' was a thing, and also didn't know about the Recess Clause.

Pursuant to the Recess Clause of the Constitution, “the President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”

There is precedent for doing so: President Eisenhower did this in 1956, when the Senate was in recess, installing Justice Brennan on the Supreme Court. (He was confirmed when the Senate returned in 1957). And while the Senate can remain in “pro forma session” to avoid a formal recess, the one time it can’t do that is when a new Senate has been elected but not sworn in. In other words, there’s a window.

Of course, as the Constitution says, the recess appointment only lasts until the end of the next legislative session. But that’s two years, during which time Justice Garland serves on the Supreme Court, absent any congressional action whatsoever. And not just Garland – President Obama could name recess appointments to the dozens of vacancies in the federal system.

That would be, to put it mildly, a contentious act. But with Republican Senators going on record in favor of a permanent stonewall, the outgoing president would have ample cover to do something, anything, to end the judicial emergency they have created.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...al-crisis.html