until these machine warecent ap the accommodation that seems to have been reached between the president and senate, that the president could make intrarecess appointments if the senate was out of session for an extended period. before these appointments, the shortest prior intrasession recess appointment was made when the senate had not been in session for 10 days. the obama recess appointments were made when the senate had not been -- had been in an intrasession recess for only three days. the senate had set up a series of pro forma sessions, one every three days that lasted for only a few seconds. the purpose of these sessions was to make it impossible for the president to make a recess appointment while the senate was out of session for as many as 10 days. the democratic senate had adopted the same ploy to prevent intrasession recess appointments by president george w. bush and it had worked. he did not challenge it. but president obama has challenged this idea. a mumbai the justice department's office of legal council argue that these pro forma sessions were shams and should not be