Court hears challenge to Obama recess appointments

[Igel]

11. The options aren't great.

Either the Senate was in session, in which case the recess appointments are extra-constitutional.

Or the Senate wasn't in session, meaning that Reid adjourned the Senate in violation of the provisions of the Constitution. (With the possibility that instead of doing due diligence in keeping the Senate in session, he merely allowed quorum to lapse for several weeks without apparently noticing.)