MBE Fast Fact: The Appointment Power

There are quite a few very difficult areas tested within Constitutional Law, and one of those areas deals with the power of appointment. For the purposes of the MBE, you should know the following:

Congress has the power to make appointments, for example, appointing people to a committee who will exercise powers that are of an investigatory or an informative nature. In contrast, if the appointee's power is not investigatory or informative, but instead regulatory (if the appointee has the power to make rules, or see that the laws are carried out) then, because rule-making is an executory power, such appointees can only be appointed by the President.

In general, you should note that Congress can never make any appointments of federal officials who exercise executive power. Doing so would violate the separation of powers, an essential component of the Constitution.