ARTICLE 2: Section 2 U.S. Constitution

He (The president) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

So Puerto Rico…when it comes to balancing their budget, there’s no easy way to put it—they suck. Between pensions for government workers, hurricanes galore, and the migration of people from Puerto Rico to the mainland USA, they’re basically fucked.

Anyway, because of their financial issues, they owe a shit ton of money to creditors, with what appears to be no way to actually pay it. As a result, back in 2015, president Obama appointed a panel to oversee Puerto Rico’s spending and budget, because you know, Obama knows how to fix everything.

Both some of Puerto Rico’s creditors, and politicians think Obama’s appointees suck even worse, and they’re less than pleased. So they’ve decided to try to nullify these assholes by saying that they fall under the appointments clause, and thus should have been approved by the senate, just as the senate does with other presidential appointees, but these asshole weren’t. Obama just shoved them down Puerto Rico’s throat and wished them good luck.

So here were are at SCOTUS, asking them to determine if these assholes Obama sent down should have been run by congress first. And if not, does Puerto Rico have to comply with these mother fuckers if they weren’t properly appointed and/or can they seek relief from decisions these assholes already enforced? This is the de facto officer doctrine at work, which basically says, if someone was appointed wrongly, and that’s determined down the road, their orders were still valid at the time they were in office, and there was no reason to believe their nomination to the post wasn’t legit.

In a unanimous decision, SCOTUS decided for Financial Oversight. That the appointments clause does govern the appointment of officers of the United States, this oversight panel are not officers withing the meaning of that clause.

Basically they were saying that the appointments clause applies to people who govern over Puerto Rico for the United States. But that these assholes were just local authorities. Puerto Rico law is what allowed these assholes to come down and oversee their spending, not federal law. Obama just sent down some people he thought would be good at it.

Since federal law isn’t what’s behind these twits, they didn’t need to go through the appointments process.

Good luck Puerto Rico.