By Andrew Harris, Bloomberg Businessweek

President Barack Obama’s authority to make appointments without U.S. Senate approval is being considered by an appeals court for the first time in a test of so-called pro-forma sessions set up by Republican lawmakers.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago is scheduled today to review the president’s Jan. 4 naming of three National Labor Relations Board members while the Senate was holding pro-forma sessions that sometimes involved one senator appearing in the chamber every third day.

Also on Jan. 4, Obama appointed former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created to monitor banks’ consumer lending practices.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-30/obama