
What is even more interesting (as pointed out here by John Elwood at The Volokh Conspiracy) is that the D.C. Circuit went on to state in a 2-1 opinion that the recess appointment power is available to the President only if the vacancies in question actually occurred during a recess of the Senate. This appears to go against almost 200 years of practice as Presidents have made many recess appointments for vacancies that occurred while the Senate was not in recess. All of a sudden, this arcane dispute between the President and the Congress on the meaning of the word "Recess" calls into question years of government decisions including the recent mortgage rules issues by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Supreme Court will likely take this case and give us the last word on this. Stay tuned!