Advice and Consent

(redirected from Senate confirmation)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.

Advice and Consent

The authority given by the U.S. Constitution to the Senate to ratify treaties and confirm presidential cabinet, ambassadorial, and judicial appointments.

Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution gives the president the right to negotiate foreign treaties and to nominate individuals to high-ranking government positions, including cabinet members, ambassadors, and federal judges. However, these powers are conditioned upon the advice and consent of the Senate. Section 2 requires the Senate to approve treaties by a two thirds majority, while presidential appointments require a simple majority. The advice and consent requirement is an example of one of the checks and balances built into the Constitution. The provision seeks to limit presidential power.

The Senate has used the treaty ratification authority to extract changes in negotiated treaties and, in some cases, to reject an international agreement. The most famous rejection involved President woodrow wilson's desire to have the United States join the newly created League of Nations after World War I. The Senate, hostile to the concept of international government, refused to ratify the treaty in 1919, which severely weakened the organization. In contrast, the Senate ratified the United Nations charter in 1945.

The advice and consent power has drawn the most public attention when the Senate has rejected presidential nominations to the cabinet and to federal judgeships. The Senate voted down the 1987 Supreme Court nomination of robert bork by President ronald reagan, leading to charges that the Senate had politicized the confirmation process. Clarence Thomas was confirmed as Supreme Court justice in 1991, but only after a bruising confirmation struggle that was nationally televised. In 2002, the Senate rejected several judicial nominations by President george w. bush, again leading to charges of partisan politics.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
Trump kept Shannon on board when he assumed the presidency and must now appoint a successor who would need Senate confirmation.
Probably nobody, 225 years ago, had any idea that the number of officials deemed to require Senate confirmation would eventually exceed 1,400, or that Senate confirmation would involve a vetting process that often takes years to complete.
A second provision in the amendment allows for Senate confirmation of the governor's Supreme Court appointments, as long as the confirmation does not take more than 90 days.
WASHINGTON: The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved former Pakistan troubleshooter Anne Patterson to be the next US ambassador to Egypt, a key step towards full Senate confirmation.
Because he was appointed while the Senate is in recess, Ford, a career diplomat, will not need Senate confirmation. But he can serve only until the end of the next session of Congress, which will likely be in December 2011.
He originally put Berwick in the job July 7 using a recess appointment, a procedure that lets the president fill positions without Senate confirmation when Congress isn't in session.
Marshall's Senate confirmation hearing took place in February.
Her nomination is subject to Senate confirmation. Dichter serves as deputy secretary, Office of Child Development and Early Learning for the departments of Public Welfare and Education.
The first identifies the presidential appointee positions that require Senate confirmation and what committee handles each one.
In other federal public health-related positions, APHA member Howard Koh, MD, MPH, received Senate confirmation in June to serve as assistant secretary for health at HHS.
He did not come up for Senate confirmation until May of this year.
The Obama administration has named officials to several top health care-related positions that do not require Senate confirmation, including the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration and the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
Full browser ?